Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

expectation

 noun
     
ex‧pec‧ta‧tion S2 W2
1 [uncountable and countable] what you think or hope will happen
expectation that
For some time he lived with the expectation that he was going to die.
in (the) expectation of something
Anne left Germany in the expectation of seeing her family again before very long.
against/contrary to (all) expectations
Against all expectations, getting up at five is actually easier in winter.
Having raised expectations (=made people more hopeful), he went on to help only a few people.
above/below expectations
Profits are below expectations.
beyond (somebody's) expectations
Gina has succeeded beyond our expectations.
The show exceeded all expectations (=was much better than expected).
come/live up to (somebody's) expectations
His performance did not live up to our expectations
 (=was not as good as we expected)
The number of people who attended fell short of expectations (=was lower than expected).
2 [countable usually plural] a feeling or belief about the way something should be or how someone should behave
expectation of
Women who have high expectations of marriage are often disappointed.
Some people have totally unrealistic expectations of both medical and nursing staff.
3

expectation of life

the number of years that someone is likely to live [= life expectancy]
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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