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

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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 That time comes out of prospecting, planning and relationship expansion. — Satish Avhad, Forbes.com, 14 Sep. 2026 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 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
  • Police are searching for a man in connection with the shooting.
    — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 17 Oct. 2026
  • The Coast Guard and Navy are searching the waters using multiple aircraft and boats, along with assistance from the Mexican navy.
    — Mikella Schuettler, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of searching
Verb
  • This poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, who are usually not highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes and lack of linguistic representation.
    — Terry Tang, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Former Great British Bake Off host Sue Perkins is exploring her late-in-life ADHD diagnosis for the first time in an Audible podcast.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 19 Oct. 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 20 Oct. 2026.

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