Prospectus

How to spell prospectus

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce prospectus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prospectus mean?

1. nounA printed document or booklet describing the features of an institution, course, or commercial venture, intended to attract students, customers, or investors.

Prospectus in a sentence

• The college sent her a glossy prospectus listing every degree course on offer.

• Before investing, he read the fund's prospectus to understand the risks and fees.

Where does prospectus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is taken directly from Latin, where prospectus meant 'a view', 'an outlook', or 'a distant prospect', and was the past participle of the verb prospicere, 'to look forward' or 'to look out into the distance'. That verb was built from pro-, meaning 'forward' or 'ahead', and specere, 'to look', the same root that gives English 'spectacle', 'inspect', and 'spectator'. English borrowed prospectus unchanged in the early 1700s, first to mean a description or summary that allows readers to 'look ahead' at what a proposed book, business, or institution will offer. From there it settled into its modern senses: the booklet a school or college publishes to attract students, and the formal document that sets out the details of a share offering or investment. Because the word was lifted straight from Latin, it keeps the original -us ending rather than an English -ous, which is exactly the spelling slip writers most often make.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• spect (look, from specere 'to look')
• -us (Latin noun ending)