would-be
/ˈwʊdbi
/adjective [attributive]
Desiring or aspiring to be a specified type of person: a would-be actress who dresses up as Marilyn Monroe...
- Making too much of a clamor over the issue could send a wrong signal to the business world and would-be investors.
- One other conundrum for the board and would-be investors to contemplate is the question of future leadership.
- Knowing that the club would still have a home at which to play would be a massive boost for any would-be investor.
Synonyms
aspiring, budding, promising, prospective, potential, striving, hopeful, optimistic, keen, eager, ambitious, enterprising, wishful, longing
informal wannabe
noun informal
A person who desires or aspires to be a particular type: a seemingly endless queue of journalists and would-bes formed...
- The seriousness of the offence precipitates a very harsh sanction so that other would-bes could be deterred or discouraged from committing a similar offence.
- The story of his resistance to ordination is a fine reminder to all clergy and would-bes of the gravity of the office.
- self-parodic
- self-parody
- self-parodying
- self-perpetuating
- self-perpetuation
- self-pity
- self-pitying
- self-pityingly
- self-policing
- self-pollinated
- self-pollinating
- self-pollination
- self-pollinator
- self-portrait
- self-portraiture
- self-possessed
- self-possession
- self-praise
- self-preservation
- self-proclaimed
- self-promoter
- self-promoting
- self-promotion
- self-propagating
- self-propagation