prompt

/pɹɒmpt//pɹɑmpt/

prompt adjective: quick; acting without delay.

Adjective

prompt (comparative more prompt, superlative most prompt)

Quick; acting without delay.
- He was very prompt at getting a new job.
- a prompt response
Synonyms:

hasty
On time; punctual.
- Be prompt for your appointment.
Synonyms:

timely, in time, on time, punctual, seasonable
(archaic) Ready; willing to act.
- Tell him, I am prompt / To lay my Crowne at's feete, and there to kneele.1623, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, act 3, scene 8
Synonyms:

good to go, yare
Front: closest or nearest, in futures trading.
- 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.2013 July 5, Davis W. Edwards, Energy Investing DeMystified: A Self-Teaching Guide, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 19
- 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.2021 May 11, Neil C. Schofield, Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 448

Noun

prompt (plural prompts)

A word, phrase or line supplied by a prompter to an actor who has forgotten the script.
A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.
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.
(machine learning) Textual input given to a large language model or image model in order to have it generate a desired output.
- I struggled to come up with a prompt that would give me the exact image I had in mind.
- 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.”2022 April 15, Steven Johnson, Nikita Iziev, “A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
(dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
- To cover any probable difference of price which might arise before the expiration of the prompt, which for this article [tea] is three months.1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC

Verb

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

(transitive) To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.
- I prompted him to get a new job.
Synonyms:

counsel, exhort, admonish, adjure, advise, advocate, encourage, urge, recommend, suggest
(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.
- "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.1988, Tad Williams, chapter 5, in The Dragonbone Chair, DAW Books, →ISBN
(transitive) 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.
(transitive) To initiate; to cause or lead to.
- At first Renie's chain of thought had been prompted by the unsatisfactory nature of phone contact compared to an actual meeting,[…]1996, Tad Williams, chapter 7, in City of Golden Shadow, Legend Books, →ISBN
- 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.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC
Synonyms:

instigate, provoke, abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting, bring about
(transitive) To request (a user) to provide input or do something on a computer.
- The script prompted him to enter his credit account number.
(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.

prompt meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

prompt in Tamil

தூண்டி, நினைப்பூட்டு சொல், வாக்கியம், கருவி, துணைச்சொல், உடனே

prompt in Bengali

শীঘ্র, তত্পর, চট্পটে, অবিলম্বে সম্পাদিত, চটাপটে, দ্রুতক্রিয়

More languagesFewer languages

prompt in Telugu: ప్రాంప్ట్, ప్రాంప్ట్ చేయండి, ప్రాంప్ట్ చెయ్యడానికి
prompt in Malayalam: ശീഘ്രമായ, താമസമില്ലാത്ത, കണിശം പാലിക്കുന്ന
prompt in Kannada: ನೆನಪಿಸು, ಎತ್ತಿಕೊಡು, ಪ್ರೇರಿಸು, ಪ್ರಚೋದಿಸು
prompt in Gujarati: પ્રોમ્પ્ટ કરો
prompt in Nepali: प्रम्पट गर्नुहोस्, प्रम्पट, प्रोम्प्ट गर्ने
prompt in Arabic: فورا, أَمْر ʔamr
prompt in Malay: pendorong
prompt in Indonesian: cepat, wantian, pesan
prompt in Vietnamese: nhanh lẹ, mau lẹ, nhanh nhẹn, nhanh

Examples of prompt in a sentence

Is that understood?’ he prompted determinedly.2007 December, Margaret Mayo, Helen Brooks, Carole Mortimer, A Presents Christmas Bundle: An Anthology, Harlequin, page 51:
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.2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative...

All 40 example sentences with prompt

Synonyms of prompt

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of prompt

Forms of prompt

Adjective
comparative	more prompt
superlative	most prompt
Noun
plural	prompts
Verb
third-person singular present	prompts
present participle	prompting
past participle	prompted
past	prompted

Past tense of prompt: prompted

Plural of prompt: prompts

Origin of prompt

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.

Words formed from prompt

Phrases with prompt

Words that rhyme with prompt

accompt

Questions about prompt

What does prompt mean?: Prompt means quick; acting without delay.
What is prompt in Hindi?: Prompt in Hindi is फुर्तीला (phurtīlā). See Prompt meaning in Hindi.
How do you use prompt in a sentence?: Is that understood?’ he prompted determinedly.
What part of speech is prompt?: Prompt can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce prompt?: Prompt is pronounced /pɹɒmpt/ (UK).

Words near prompt in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: prompt (page history and authors); फुर्तीला (Hindi) (page history and authors); prompt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prompt (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prompt (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); prompt (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prompt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prompt (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); prompt (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-prompt.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-prompt.wav.

Cite this entry: “prompt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prompt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.