prompt

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English

Etymology

From French prompt, from 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).

Pronunciation

Adjective

prompt (comparative more prompt, superlative most prompt)

  1. Quick; acting without delay.
    Synonyms: hasty; see also Thesaurus:prompt
    He was very prompt at getting a new job.
    a prompt response
  2. On time; punctual.
    Synonyms: timely; see also Thesaurus:punctual
    Be prompt for your appointment.
  3. (archaic) Ready; willing to act.
    Synonyms: good to go, yare
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, act 3, scene 8:
      Tell him, I am prompt / To lay my Crowne at's feete, and there to kneele.
  4. (finance) Front: closest or nearest, in futures trading.
    • 2013 July 5, Davis W. Edwards, Energy Investing DeMystified: A Self-Teaching Guide, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 19:
      When physical crude oil transactions are priced, they are usually marked to the prompt month futures contract. The prompt month futures contract is the next futures contract to settle.
    • 2021 May 11, Neil C. Schofield, Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 448:
      The settlement ratio is determined as follows: i) If the prompt futures price of coal at maturity is less than or equal to the floor price, the ratio will be one.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

prompt (plural prompts)

  1. A reminder or cue.
    1. (writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.
  2. (business, dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
  3. (computing) A sequence of characters that is displayed to indicate that a computer is ready to receive input.
    I filled in my name where the prompt appeared on the computer screen but my account wasn't recognized.
  4. (machine learning) Textual input given to a large language model or image model in order to have it generate a desired output.
    • 2022 April 15, Steven Johnson, Nikita Iziev, “A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      For instance, using the “instruct” mode, I once gave GPT-3 the prompt: “Write an essay discussing the role of metafiction in the work of Italo Calvino.”

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

prompt (third-person singular simple present prompts, present participle prompting, simple past and past participle prompted)

  1. (transitive) To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.
    Synonyms: counsel, exhort; see also Thesaurus:advise
    I prompted him to get a new job.
  2. (transitive) To say (something) in order to help or encourage someone to speak.
    "How did you solve the issue then?" Jason prompted while staring at Lana.
    • 1988, Tad Williams, chapter 5, in The Dragonbone Chair, DAW Books, →ISBN:
      "What is your name, you?" he demanded. The captured youth tried to pull free again, but was obviously tiring. After a moment he stopped his struggling altogether. "Your name?" Simon prompted, this time in a softer tone.
      "Malachias." The youth turned away panting.
    • 2007 December, Margaret Mayo, Helen Brooks, Carole Mortimer, A Presents Christmas Bundle: An Anthology, Harlequin, page 51:
      ‘Be warned, Molly,’ Gideon added harshly. ‘I won't ever let you do or say anything that will hurt Crys. Is that understood?’ he prompted determinedly.
  3. (transitive, theater and television) To show or tell (an actor/person) the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.
    If he forgets his words I will prompt him.
  4. (transitive) To initiate; to cause or lead to.
    Synonyms: instigate, provoke; see also Thesaurus:incite
    • 1996, Tad Williams, chapter 7, in City of Golden Shadow, Legend Books, →ISBN:
      At first Renie's chain of thought had been prompted by the unsatisfactory nature of phone contact compared to an actual meeting, []
    • 2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:
      The only sour note on a virtually perfect night for England came from shameful 'monkey' chanting aimed at Ashley Cole and Ashley Young from a section of Bulgaria's fans which later prompted an official complaint from the Football Association to Uefa.
    • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:
      On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, the first sound-synched feature film, prompting a technological shift of unprecedented speed and unstoppable force. Within two years, nearly every studio release was a talkie.
  5. (transitive, computing) To request (a user) to provide input or do something on a computer.
    The script prompted him to enter his credit account number.
  6. (transitive, machine learning) To provide textual input in the form of ordinary language to (an artificial intelligence or language model) to have it generate a desired output.
    I want to prompt this new AI art generator to create an image of a panda riding a bike.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French prompt, from Latin prōmptus.

Adverb

prompt

  1. immediately, promptly
    Synonym: meteen
    Hij betaalde prompt.
    He paid promptly.

Adjective

prompt (not comparable)

  1. quick, immediate
Declension
Declension of prompt
uninflected prompt
inflected prompte
comparative prompter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial prompt prompter het promptst
het promptste
indefinite m./f. sing. prompte promptere promptste
n. sing. prompt prompter promptste
plural prompte promptere promptste
definite prompte promptere promptste
partitive prompts prompters
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English prompt, from Middle French prompt, from Latin prōmptus.

Noun

prompt m (plural prompts)

  1. (computing) prompt

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin promptus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʁɔ̃/, /pʁɔ̃t/, /pʁɔ̃pt/
  • Audio:(file)

Adjective

prompt (feminine prompte, masculine plural prompts, feminine plural promptes)

  1. prompt, swift, quick
    Near-synonym: rapide
    prompt rétablissementget well soon
  2. (Louisiana) curt

Further reading

German

Etymology

From French prompt, from 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).

Pronunciation

Adjective

prompt (strong nominative masculine singular prompter, comparative prompter, superlative am promptesten)

  1. immediate, swift, expeditious, prompt

Further reading

  • prompt” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • prompt” in Duden online

Norman

Etymology

From Latin prōmptus, past participle of prōmō (I take, bring out, produce, bring to light).

Adjective

prompt m

  1. (Jersey) hasty

Derived terms

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French prompt, from Latin promptus, from promere (bring out).

Adverb

prompt

  1. quickly and punctually; promptly

Adjective

prompt (singular and plural prompt, comparative mer prompt, superlative mest prompt)

  1. quick and punctual; prompt

References

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French prompt, from Latin promptus.

Adjective

prompt m or n (feminine singular promptă, masculine plural prompți, feminine and neuter plural prompte)

  1. prompt

Declension

singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative-
accusative
indefinite prompt promptă prompți prompte
definite promptul prompta prompții promptele
genitive-
dative
indefinite prompt prompte prompți prompte
definite promptului promptei prompților promptelor

Swedish

Adverb

prompt (not comparable)

  1. promptly (immediately)
    Svaret kom prompt
    The answer came promptly
  2. unconditionally, necessarily
    Om du prompt måste göra det så ta det försiktigt
    If you necessarily have to do it, be careful

Adjective

prompt (not comparable)

  1. (in some expressions) prompt (quick)
    prompt leverans
    prompt delivery

Declension

Inflection of prompt
Indefinite positive comparative superlative1
common singular prompt
neuter singular prompt
plural prompta
masculine plural2 prompte
Definite positive comparative superlative
masculine singular3 prompte
all prompta

1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
2 Dated or archaic.
3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Noun

prompt c

  1. (computing) a prompt
  2. (machine learning) a prompt

Declension

References