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Wishful vs Wantful - What's the difference?

wishful | wantful |

As adjectives the difference between wishful and wantful

is that wishful is wished-for; desired, wanted while wantful is full of want or lack; lacking; poor.

wishful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Wished-for; desired, wanted.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.9:
    • The cry whereof entring the hollow cave / Eftsoones brought forth the villaine, as they ment, / With hope of her some wishfull boot to have.
  • Expressing a wish or longing for something.
  • Aspiring, or seeking advancement.

    • Derived terms

    * wishful thinking

    wantful

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Full of want or lack; lacking; poor.
  • *1807 , Robert Southey, Specimens of the later English poets :
    • Nor rank, nor wealth, I ask, but let me be Above contempt, and wantful poverty.
  • Full of want or desire; desirous.
  • *2010 , Richard Francis, Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia :
    • Greaves's soul had up to that moment been "wantful , lustful,” and "working actively in lower regions,” but now it became “receptive of Spirit from the higher elements.

    Antonyms

    * (l)