These words pertain to the attitude of looking forward to something that is to occur in the future. Hope suggests looking forward exclusively to some positive or favourable outcome; it may be well-founded in probability or completely impossible: hoping that his extra effort on the term paper would bring him a higher mark; still hoping , despite the driving rain, that it would be sunny when they reached the beach. Wish suggests something considerably less plausible or likely than hope : wishing that he could suddenly be made into a millionaire. Where hope may be part of an ennobling or heroic attitude, wish imparts a flavour of idle childishness that is unwilling to take a realistic stand: wishing for the good things of life rather than working for them full of confidence and hope. Dream suggests an even more tenuous basis for looking forward than wish , implying a complete, if momentary, retreat from reality: dreaming of the day when her husband would be acclaimed as a great writer. Unlike wish , dream can be used in a way that parallels the noble sense of hope : a person ceases to be human when the ceases to dream . Furthermore, both dream and wish are not necessarily restricted, as with hope , to future possibilities: wishing she had been born a princess; dreaming of a happier life on some other planet.

Anticipate is closer to hope in being restricted to thoughts of the future: anticipating the fast approach of Christmas and the presents she would at last be able to open. But while the word is frequently connected to thoughts of a pleasant outcome, it can also be used for imagining an unpleasant one: anticipating the eventual defeat of all his troops. Expect suggests looking forward either to a positive or to a negative outcome, but the point of this word is that it concerns itself with supposed certainties: expecting any minute to hear her husband climbing the stairs, home from work; fully expecting the rush of abuse that followed his unpleasant revelation. Await stresses a certain passiveness of attitude while watching for something imminent to occur, whether positive or negative, whether expected or not: awaiting her answer without the slightest clue as to what she would say; awaiting his passionately hoped-for return; grimly awaiting the fall of the guillotine blade.

Foresee introduces another aspect of looking to the future; it suggests attempts to infer what the future might be, rather than imagining an outcome either in accord with what is hoped or opposed to it: foreseeing by every sign that it would rain before morning.