hopeful

hopeful, optimistic, roseate, rose-colored are comparable when they mean having or showing confidence that the end or outcome will be favorable or for the best.

Hopeful, which is often used in distinction from sanguine (see CONFIDENT), usually implies some ground, and often reasonably good grounds, for one's having hope; it therefore typically suggests confidence in which there is little or no self-deception or which may be the result of a realistic consideration of the possibilities

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the air of youth, hopeful and cheerful— Milton

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I am hopeful of purification [in politics], but not sanguine— J. R. Lowell

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the vitamins of idealistic romance have been important in the expansive, the hopeful view of life— Canby

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Optimistic usually implies a temperamental confidence that all will turn out for the best; unlike hopeful, it often suggests a failure to consider things closely and realistically or, even, a willingness to be guided by illusions rather than by facts

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the optimistic or sentimental hypothesis that wickedness always fares ill in the world— John Morley

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the barren optimistic sophistries of comfortable moles— Arnold

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Sometimes, however, the term carries a suggestion not of weakness but of a fundamental faith in the triumph of good or right

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there is a species of discontent which is more fervently optimistic than all the cheerfulness the world can boast— Repplier

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Roseate and rose-colored in their relevant extended senses imply the optimism of an aboundingly cheerful temperament which enables one to see persons, events, or situations in their most attractive and alluring aspects. The terms definitely imply illusion or delusion and therefore connote an element of falsity, though not necessarily intentional falsity

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a persuasive person who could depict the merits of his scheme with roseate but delusive eloquence— Goldwin Smith

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a rose-colored view of the world's future

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delivers a final . . . talk, capping the rose-colored impression of life in this particular branch of the services— Christian Science Monitor

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Analogous words: expecting, hoping, awaiting (see EXPECT): anticipating, foreseeing, divining (see FORESEE): sanguine, sure, *confident, assured

Antonyms: hopeless, despairing

Contrasted words: *despondent, desperate, forlorn: pessimistic, *cynical