Applicant

How to spell applicant

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce applicant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does applicant mean?

1. nounA person who formally requests something, such as a job, a loan, or admission to a course.

Applicant in a sentence

• Each applicant must submit two references with the form.

• The strongest applicant was offered the post within a week.

Where does applicant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin applicare, meaning 'to attach to' or 'to bring near', formed from the prefix ad- ('to, toward') and plicare ('to fold or bend'). The literal image is of bending or folding something toward a thing, which later softened into the sense of directing oneself to an authority or making a formal request. English took 'applicant' in the seventeenth century to mean a person who applies, especially someone seeking a position, grant, or admission. The same plicare root quietly survives in a large family of English words such as 'pliable', 'complicate', and 'reply', all carrying that original notion of folding. The spelling trap sits in the single p of -plic- and the -ant ending, where the unstressed final syllable sounds like the more common -ent.

How the word is built

• ap- (from ad-: to, toward)
• plic (root meaning fold or bend, from plicare)
• -ant (noun suffix: one who does)