prospecting

verb

present participle of prospect
as in searching
to go into or range over for purposes of discovery soon all manner of people had arrived in the valley to prospect it for gold

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of prospecting The prospecting company, now called Hydroma, had a small electrical plant constructed to convert the gas into power for the village’s residents. — IEEE Spectrum, 11 Aug. 2026 The city tries to keep its idiosyncratic businesses going while prospecting for newcomers. — Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2026 When existing pipeline gets heavy, prospecting is the first thing that drops. — Jeff Winters, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026 Northern Nigeria boasts commercial-grade lithium deposits that have attracted investment interest from global firms prospecting for green energy minerals. — Alexander Onukwue, semafor.com, 8 July 2026 That means prospecting for lunar helium-3 starts by simply making mineralogical maps of the moon’s surface. — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 14 May 2026 The price of the precious metal has skyrocketed—briefly surpassing a record five thousand dollars an ounce earlier this spring—and, as Jennifer Wilson reports from the American West for this week’s special issue, this has led to a boom in prospecting not seen since the days of the forty-niners. — David Remnick, New Yorker, 11 May 2026 From a robot that can handwrite hundreds of real estate prospecting cards in minutes to a digital consultant that can narrow down thousands of mortgage options for a client, artificial intelligence has finally arrived in the real estate industry. — Amancai Biraben, Oc Register, 6 Apr. 2026 Elements of the vision unveiled by Isaacman and other NASA officials last week, such as deep space nuclear propulsion, nuclear reactors on the Moon, and prospecting for lunar resources, will require significant investment in new space technology. — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 3 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prospecting
  1. searching
  2. exploring
Verb
  • While searching for a message to share with his team this week, Frost found inspiration from the handful of games that were played this weekend as part of Week 0.
    — Matt Murschel, The Orlando Sentinel, 31 Aug. 2026
  • The farm alleges an officer in Polk County shot the donkey while searching for a missing person without permission or warning, according to the Facebook post.
    — Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of searching
Verb
  • Viral food trends may offer an easy entry point to exploring a new cuisine, said Shereshewsky, but don’t let that overshadow the history of a dish.
    — Rebecca Boone, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Yi offers her readers a dazzling cabinet of curiosities, exploring spirituality, desire and the desperate ways people grasp at each other.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of exploring

Browse Nearby Words

prospected
prospecting
prospective
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Prospecting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prospecting. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All