Aspire

How to spell aspire

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce aspire

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aspire mean?

1. verbTo direct one's hopes or ambitions toward achieving something significant.

Aspire in a sentence

• Many graduates aspire to run their own businesses one day.

• They work long hours because they aspire to senior management roles.

Where does aspire come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travelled into English from the Latin verb aspirare, which was built from ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and spirare, meaning 'to breathe'. The literal sense was 'to breathe upon' or 'to breathe toward something', and from that physical image grew the figurative idea of directing one's longing or ambition toward a distant goal, as if reaching out with one's very breath. English picked it up in the late 1400s, by way of Old French aspirer, with the modern meaning of striving after something high. The same spirare root sits behind a whole family of familiar words, including 'inspire', 'respire', 'perspire' and even 'spirit', all of which carry that original breathing image. Keeping that breathing root in mind helps explain the 'spir' in the middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• a- (from ad-: to, toward)
• spir (from spirare: to breathe)
• -e