project

project

English

Etymology

From Latin prōiectus, perfect passive participle of prōiciō (“throw forth, extend; expel”).

Pronunciation

Noun

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒd͡ʒ.ɛkt/, (rare) /ˈpɹəʊ.dʒɛkt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊ.d͡ʒɛkt/, /ˈpɹɒd͡ʒ.ɛkt/
• (General American) enPR: prŏʹjĕkt', prŏʹjĭkt IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑˌd͡ʒɛkt/, /ˈpɹɑ.d͡ʒɪ̈kt/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑ.d͡ʒɛkt/, /ˈpɹoʊ.d͡ʒɛkt/

• Audio (Canada)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒd͡ʒɛkt, -əʊd͡ʒɛkt
• Hyphenation: proj‧ect

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) enPR: prə-jĕktʹ IPA^(key): /pɹəˈd͡ʒɛkt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (Canada)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt
• Hyphenation: pro‧ject

Noun

project (plural projects)

1. A planned endeavor, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Greatness of the Gospel Salvation

     projects of happiness devised by human reason

   • 1924, Clarence Budington Kelland, The Steadfast Heart/Chapter 22

     Rainbow, […] came forward enthusiastically to put its money into the project in sums which ran all the way from one share at ten dollars to ten shares

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     The proposal with China would involve a project to create artificial rain.

     Audio (US)

     (file)

2. (usually in the plural, US) An urban low-income housing building.

   Projects like Pruitt-Igoe were considered irreparably dangerous and demolished.

   • 1996, “Stakes is High”, in Stakes Is High, performed by De La Soul:

     Experiments when needles and skin connect / No wonder where we live is called the projects

   • 2012, “Money Trees”, in Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, performed by Kendrick Lamar ft. Jay Rock:

     Imagine rock up in them projects / Where them niggas pick your pockets

3. (dated) An idle scheme; an impracticable design.

   a man given to projects

4. (US, sports) a raw recruit who the team hopes will improve greatly with coaching; a long shot diamond in the rough
   • 2014 Oct 27, Gabriele Marcotti, "Ancelotti triumphs, van Gaal's progress, Dortmund disappoint, more", ESPN FC:

     Sakho was seen as no-frills, whereas Maiga was a project who could develop into the next big thing.

   • 2018 Sep 2, Arnie Melendrez Stapleton, "Broncos cut ties with 2016 first-round pick QB Lynch", WNYT:

     Elway acknowledged at the time that Lynch was a project who needed some seasoning but he expressed hope that Lynch might be a quick study. He wasn't.

5. (obsolete) A projectile.
6. (obsolete) A projection.

Hyponyms

• pilot project
• subproject
• Web project

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: プロジェクト (purojekuto)
• → Korean: 프로젝트 (peurojekteu)
• → Scottish Gaelic: pròiseact

Translations

planned endeavor

Afrikaans: projek Albanian: ndërmarrje (sq) f, projekt (sq) m Arabic: مَشْرُوع‎ (ar) m (mašrūʿ) Egyptian Arabic: مشروع‎ m (mašrūʿ) Armenian: նախագիծ (hy) (naxagic) Assamese: প্ৰকল্প (prokolpo) Azerbaijani: layihə Belarusian: прае́кт m (prajékt), план m (plan) Bengali: প্রজেক্ট (bn) (prôjekṭô) Bulgarian: прое́кт (bg) m (proékt), план (bg) m (plan) Burmese: ပရိုဂျက် (my) (pa.ruigyak) Catalan: projecte (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 計劃／计划 (zh) (jìhuà), 方案 (zh) (fāng'àn), 項目／项目 (zh) (xiàngmù), 工程 (zh) (gōngchéng) Czech: projekt (cs) m, plán (cs) m Danish: projekt n Dutch: project (nl) n Esperanto: projekto Estonian: projekt Faroese: verkætlan f Finnish: hanke (fi), projekti (fi) French: projet (fr) m Friulian: progjet m Galician: proxecto (gl) m Georgian: გეგმა (gegma), პროექტი (ṗroekṭi) German: Projekt (de) n, Vorhaben (de) n Greek: έργο (el) n (érgo) Haitian Creole: pwojè Hebrew: פְּרוֹיֶקְט‎ m (proyékt), מֵיזָם‎ (he) m (meizám) Hindi: परियोजना f (pariyojnā), योजना (hi) f (yojnā), प्रोजैक्ट (projaikṭ) Hungarian: terv (hu), projekt (hu) Icelandic: áætlun (is) f, verkefni (is) n Ido: projeto (io) Indonesian: proyek (id) Irish: tionscadal (ga) m, togra m Italian: progetto (it) m, studio (it) m, ricerca (it) f Japanese: 計画 (ja) (けいかく, keikaku), 事業 (ja) (じぎょう, jigyō), プロジェクト (ja) (purojekuto) Karakalpak: proekt Kazakh: жоба (kk) (joba), жоспар (jospar) Khmer: គំរោង (kumroong), ផែនការ (km) (phaen kaa) Korean: 계획(計劃) (ko) (gyehoek), 사업(事業) (ko) (sa'eop), 프로젝트 (ko) (peurojekteu) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: پرۆژە‎ (ku) (proje) Northern Kurdish: proje (ku) Kyrgyz: проект (proyekt), долбоор (ky) (dolboor) Lao: ໂຄງການ (khōng kān) Latin: inceptum n Latvian: projekts m Lithuanian: projektas (lt) m Macedonian: проект m (proekt) Malay: projek, proyek (Indonesia) Maltese: proġett m Maori: whakatakanga Mongolian: Cyrillic: төсөл (mn) (tösöl) Mongolian: ᠲᠥᠰᠦᠯ (tösül) Norman: projet m Norwegian: Bokmål: prosjekt (no) n Nynorsk: prosjekt n Pashto: پروژه‎ (ps) m (prožá), لايحه‎ f (lāyehá), نقشه‎ (ps) f (naqšá) Persian: پروژه‎ (fa) (prože), پیش‌افکند‎ (fa) (piš-afkand), نقشه‎ (fa) (naqše), طرح‎ (fa) (tarh), لایحه‎ (fa) (lâyehe) Polish: projekt (pl) m inan, plan (pl) m Portuguese: projeto (pt) m Romanian: proiect (ro) n Russian: прое́кт (ru) m (proékt), план (ru) m (plan) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: про̀јекат m (Bosnian, Serbian), про̀јект (Croatian) Roman: pròjekat m (Bosnian, Serbian), pròjekt (sh) m (Croatian) Slovak: projekt m, plán m Slovene: projekt (sl) m Spanish: proyecto (es) m Swahili: mradi (sw) Swedish: projekt (sv) n Tajik: лоиҳа (tg) (loyiha), нақша (naqša), тарҳ (tg) (tarh) Tagalog: proyekto, pamalakan Thai: โครงการ (th) (kroong-gaan) Turkish: proje (tr) Ukrainian: проє́кт (uk) m (projékt), план m (plan) Urdu: منصوبہ‎ (ur) (mansūba) Uyghur: لايىھە‎ (layihe), پىلان‎ (pilan) Uzbek: proyekt (uz), loyiha (uz), plan (uz) Vietnamese: kế hoạch (vi) (計畫), đề án (vi), dự án (vi) Walloon: pordjet (wa) m Welsh: prosiect (cy) m Yiddish: פּראָיעקט‎ m (proyekt)

urban low-income housing building — See also translations at social housing

Japanese: 団地 (ja) (だんち, danchi) Swahili: miradi (sw)

Verb

project (third-person singular simple present projects, present participle projecting, simple past and past participle projected)

1. (intransitive) To extend beyond a surface.

   Synonyms: extend, jut, protrude, stick out

2. (transitive) To cast (an image or shadow) upon a surface; to throw or cast forward; to shoot forth.

   Synonyms: cast, throw

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 45:

     Before his feet her selfe she did proiect

   • 1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, OCLC 43265629:

     Behold! th' ascending villas on my side / Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide.

3. (transitive) To extend (a protrusion or appendage) outward.

   Synonyms: extend, jut, jut out

4. (transitive) To make plans for; to forecast.

   Synonyms: forecast, foresee, foretell

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 172:

     To form a strict alliance between the cabinets of Paris and London—which meant, that he should influence both,—to induce Charles to marry the loveliest of his nieces, Hortense—thus making a common interest between them, were now the great objects with the Cardinal; and the present visit was of his projecting.

   The CEO is projecting the completion of the acquisition by April 2007.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     projecting Peace and Warr?

5. (transitive, reflexive) To present (oneself), to convey a certain impression, usually in a good way.
   • 1946, Dr. Ralph S. Banay, The Milwaukee Journal, Is Modern Woman a Failure:

     It is difficult to gauge the exact point at which women stop trying to fool men and really begin to deceive themselves, but an objective analyst cannot escape the conclusion (1) that partly from a natural device inherent in the species, women deliberately project upon actual or potential suitors an impression of themselves that is not an accurate picture of their total nature, and (2) that few women ever are privileged to see themselves as they really are.

6. (transitive, psychology, psychoanalysis) To assume qualities or mindsets in others based on one's own personality.
7. (cartography) To change the projection (or coordinate system) of spatial data with another projection.
8. (geometry) To draw straight lines from a fixed point through every point of any body or figure, and let these fall upon a surface so as to form the points of a new figure.
9. (neuroanatomy) (of a neuron or group of neurons) to have axon(s) extending to and therefore able to influence a remote location
10. To speak or sing in such a way that one can be heard from a large distance away.
    • 2016, Sam Esmail; Courtney Looney, Mr. Robot: Red Wheelbarrow: eps1.91_redwheelbarr0w.txt, Abrams Books, New York City, →ISBN:

      You would think that topic coulda put me to sleep, but HE can really project when HE wants to.

Translations

to extend beyond a surface

Bulgarian: изпъквам (bg) (izpǎkvam), издавам се (izdavam se) Dutch: uitsteken (nl), (zich) uitstrekken (nl) Finnish: tulla esiin, nousta (fi), kohota (fi) Galician: proxectar German: ragen (de), hervorragen (de), herausragen (de), vorspringen (de), vorstehen (de), überstehen (de) Greek: προβάλλω (el) (provállo), προεξέχω (el) (proexécho), εξέχω (el) (exécho) Ancient: ὑπερέχω (huperékhō) Hungarian: kiáll (hu), kiszögellik, kiugrik (hu), kiemelkedik (hu) Italian: sportare, sporgere (it) Maori: kūrae, koutu, tōhira Polish: wystawać (pl) impf Russian: выступа́ть (ru) (vystupátʹ) Spanish: proyectar (es) Swahili: miradi (sw) Swedish: sträcka ut (sv) Ukrainian: вистава́ти impf (vystaváty), виступа́ти impf (vystupáty)

to cast (image, shadow)

Chinese: Mandarin: 投射 (zh) (tóushè) Dutch: werpen (nl) Estonian: kujutama Finnish: heijastaa (fi), langeta (fi), projisoida (fi) French: projeter (fr) Galician: proxectar German: projizieren (de) (image), werfen (de) (image, shadow) Hebrew: הקרין‎ (he) (hikrín) Hungarian: vetít (hu), vet (hu) Italian: proiettare (it) Maori: whakawhana (literally “to shoot forth”), tukuata Polish: rzucać (pl) impf, rzucić (pl) pf Portuguese: projetar (pt) Spanish: proyectar (es) Swahili: miradi (sw) Swedish: projicera (sv) Thai: ฉาย (th) (chǎai)

to extend (a protrusion or appendage) outward

Bulgarian: проектирам (bg) (proektiram) Finnish: ojentaa (fi) Galician: proxectar German: ausfahren (de) Hungarian: kidug (hu) Korean: 돌출(突出)하다 (ko) (dolchulhada) Maori: koutu, tōhira, whakawhana Polish: wyciągać (pl) impf, wyciągnąć (pl) pf Spanish: proyectar (es) Swahili: miradi (sw) Swedish: projicera (sv) Thai: ยื่นออกมา

to make plans for; forecast

Bulgarian: планирам (bg) (planiram) Chinese: Mandarin: 計劃／计划 (zh) (jìhuà) Dutch: voorzien (nl) Finnish: ennustaa (fi) Galician: proxectar German: projektieren (de), planen (de); hochrechnen (de), erwarten (de), vorhersagen (de), voraussagen (de), vorausberechnen (de) Greek: προβλέπω (el) (provlépo) Hebrew: תכנן‎ (tikhnén), ציפה‎ (tzipá) Hungarian: tervez (hu) Persian: پیش‌بینی کردن‎ (pishbini kardan) Polish: przewidywać (pl) impf, planować (pl) impf Spanish: proyectar (es) Swahili: miradi (sw) Swedish: projektera (sv) Thai: วางแผน (th) (waang-pɛ̌ɛn)

to present, convey an image

Bulgarian: представям (bg) (predstavjam) Dutch: uitstralen (nl) Finnish: välittää (fi), viestittää (fi) German: (please verify) ausstrahlen (de), (sich) (please verify) präsentieren (de), (sich) (please verify) darstellen (de) Greek: προβάλλω (el) (provállo) Thai: เสนอ (th) (sà-nə̌ə)

to assume about others

Dutch: projecteren (nl) Finnish: projisoida (fi) Hungarian: vetít (hu), kivetít (hu), rávetít, projiciál

Further reading

• “project”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

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Dutch

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin prōiectum. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /proːˈjɛkt/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pro‧ject
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Noun

project n (plural projecten, diminutive projectje n)

1. project (planned endeavor)

Derived terms

• bouwproject
• kunstproject
• projectonderwijs
• projectontwikkelaar

Related terms

• projecteren
• projectie
• projector

Descendants

• Afrikaans: projek
• → Indonesian: proyek
• → Trió: project