prompt

Meaning

Adj

1. Quick; acting without delay.
2. On time; punctual.
3. (archaic) Ready; willing to act.
4. Front: closest or nearest, in futures trading.

Noun

1. A reminder or cue.
2. A reminder or cue.
3. (dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
4. A sequence of characters that is displayed to indicate that a computer is ready to receive input.
5. Textual input given to a large language model or image model in order to have it generate a desired output.

Verb

1. (transitive) To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.
2. (transitive) To say (something) in order to help or encourage someone to speak.
3. (transitive) To show or tell (an actor/person) the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.
4. (transitive) To initiate; to cause or lead to.
5. (transitive) To request (a user) to provide input or do something on a computer.
6. (transitive) To provide textual input in the form of ordinary language to (an artificial intelligence or language model) to have it generate a desired output.

Synonyms

quick

immediate

urge

incite

swift

rapid

fast

impel

instigate

stimulate

prod

speedy

punctual

encourage

instantaneous

on time

spur

expeditious

abet

stir

stir up

spur on

trigger

induce

nimble

motivate

hint

provocate

agile

inspire

accurate

ready

timely

smart

remind

regular

alert

cause

instant

actuate

direct

hurried

deft

active

provoke

suggest

urge on

move

straightaway

reminder

Translations

aansporen

prompt

instigar

incitar

impelir

herausfordern

espolear

instigar

aufhetzen

instigar

rapide

accuraat

anspornen

antreiben

prompt

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pɹɒmpt/

Etymology

The adjective is from Middle English prompte, from Middle French prompt and its etymon Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”). Doublet of pronto.
The verb is from Middle English prompen, apparently from the adjective. The noun is from the verb.