awaits

Await is a transitive verb meaning to wait for something or to anticipate something with expectation. The form awaits appears in the third-person singular present tense, as in "The committee awaits the report." In contemporary usage, await is considered more formal than the simpler phrase "wait for" and it normally takes a direct object (for example, "We await the results") rather than the preposition for after the verb.

In literary and formal writing, await is common when the emphasis is on the act of waiting itself or on an upcoming event. It can convey a sense of anticipation or obligation, and it often appears in legal, ceremonial, or editorial contexts where a poised, measured tone is desired.

In computing, await is a keyword integral to asynchronous programming. It pauses the execution of a function until an asynchronous operation completes, then resumes with the operation’s result. This usage appears in languages such as JavaScript (inside async functions), Python (inside async def coroutines), and C# (within async methods). In JavaScript, await operates on a promise and can throw an error if the promise rejects. In Python, await waits for an awaitable object such as a coroutine, Task, or Future. The asynchronous await construct improves readability by allowing code to be written in a sequential style while performing non-blocking operations.

See also wait, anticipation, asynchronous programming.