Noun: promise
| Singular | promise |
| Plural | promises |
Sample Sentences
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When I make a promise, I always stick to it.
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I asked him not to, and we all heard his promise that he wouldn't.
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He broke his promise: he said he'd return my jewellery, but never did.
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He purſued Andrew Houſtoun upon his promiſe, to give him the like Sallary for the next year, and in abſence obtained him to be holden as confeſt and Decerned. [1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), pages 547–548]
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That jewelry was a promise to me.
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His grade are poor, but I see promise in him.
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Your claim has little promise in court.
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She shows great promise as an actress.
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My native country was full of youthful promise. [1819 June 23 – 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “(please specify the title)”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:]
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The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement. [1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:]
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The dream of a Northwest Passage lured European explorers for centuries with the promise of a quick, if hazardous, Arctic sea route across the New World to the wealth of Asia. [1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 586:]
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You can often use observables instead of promises to deliver values asynchronously. [2023 August 25, “Observables compared to other techniques”, in Angular 17 documentation, Google:]
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It is time they receive their promise.
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He […] commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 1:4:]
Nouns inflected like promise
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English promis, promisse, borrowed from Old French promesse, from Medieval Latin prōmissa, Latin prōmissum (“a promise”), feminine and neuter past participles of prōmittō (“to send forth, to say beforehand, to promise”), from pro (“forth”) + mittere (“to send”); see mission. Compare admit, commit, permit, etc. Displaced native ġehātan (“to promise”) and ġehāt (“a promise”). See: Latin Nouns '
prōmissum'.