Easy Explanations of English Words Hi everyone! Today's word of the day is prospective. This word is an adjective and is only used before nouns. It tends to be used in more formal settings especially in business language.Prospective means something that has potential or is likely to happen. It is always used in reference to the future. The opposite word is retrospective, which means to look backwards at events that already occurred. Be sure not to confuse prospective with the similar sounding word, perspective, which has a completely different definition. The most common way to us