• (British) IPA: /əˈspaɪə(ɹ)/
• (America) IPA: /əˈspaɪɚ/

aspire (aspires, present participle aspiring; past and past participle aspired)

1. (intransitive) To hope or dream; especially to hope or work towards a profession or occupation (followed by to as a preposition or infinitive particle).

   He aspires to become a successful doctor.

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019 ↗, lines 131–132, page 9 ↗:

     Aſpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, / Aſpiring to be Angels, Men rebell: [...]

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019 ↗, lines 248–251, page 15 ↗:

     What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind?

2. (transitive, obsolete) To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i], page 65 ↗, column 1:

     O Romeo, Romeo, braue Mercutio's is dead, / That Gallant ſpirit hath aſpir'd the Cloudes, / Which too vntimely here did ſcorne the earth.

3. To rise; to ascend; to tower; to soar.

• aspirable
• aspiration
• aspirant
• aspiring

• German: streben, hoffen
• Italian: aspirare
• Portuguese: aspirar, almejar
• Russian: стреми́ться
• Spanish: aspirar, ambicionar