prompt.
Quick; acting without delay.
Meaning & usage
Quick; acting without delay.
He was very prompt at getting a new job.
a prompt response
On time; punctual.
Be prompt for your appointment.
Ready; willing to act.
Front: closest or nearest, in futures trading.
Where this word comes from
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.
A reminder or cue. A word, phrase or line supplied by a prompter to an actor who has forgotten the script.
A reminder or cue. A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.
A reminder or cue. 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.
A reminder or cue. 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.
A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
Where this word comes from
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.
To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.
I prompted him to get a new job.
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.
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.
To initiate; to cause or lead to.
To request (a user) to provide input or do something on a computer.
The script prompted him to enter his credit account number.
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.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.