prospection

Meanings

1. 1noununcountabletechnical

   The act of searching an area for valuable resources such as minerals, oil or gold.

   Grammar: No plural: prospection began in spring.

   Patterns

   • prospection for something
   • prospection in an area

   Prospection for gold began in the hills last year.

   The company paid for oil prospection offshore.

   Geologists used satellites to plan the prospection.

2. 2noununcountablespecialist

   The mental act of imagining or predicting future events and how you might act in them.

   Grammar: Opposite of retrospection, which looks at the past.

   Patterns

   • prospection of something

   Prospection helps people plan their careers.

   The study measured how prospection affects anxiety.

   Humans rely on prospection to prepare for events.

Common combinations

mineral prospection

Mineral prospection is expensive and uncertain.

oil prospection

Oil prospection has moved into deeper water.

mental prospection

Mental prospection lets us picture tomorrow.

archaeological prospection

Archaeological prospection maps buried walls before digging.

Synonyms and how they differ

prospecting

Prospecting is the common everyday word, whereas prospection sounds formal and technical.

exploration

Exploration is broader and covers any search of new areas, not only for valuable resources.

foresight

Foresight is the ability to see what is coming, while prospection is the mental process of imagining it.

Opposites

Word family

prospect verb

to search for minerals or valuables

prospector noun

a person who searches for minerals

prospective adjective

likely to happen or be in future

prospecting noun

the search for resources

retrospection noun

thinking about the past

Commonly confused: prospection or retrospection? prospection or inspection?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “prospection”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words