prompted

Prompted is the past tense and past participle of the verb prompt. In general use, prompted means caused or induced a response or action, or served as a cue or reminder that led someone to act. It can be transitive, as in "The warning prompted an evacuation," or followed by an infinitive, as in "The teacher prompted the student to explain." It can also indicate that someone was reminded to do something, for example, "She was prompted to submit her report."

Etymology traces prompted to the Old French prompt and ultimately to Latin promptus, meaning "brought forth" or "ready." The sense of providing a cue or stimulus developed in Middle English and has remained common in both everyday and formal language.

Usage notes include that prompted often appears in passive constructions, as in "The investigation was prompted by a discrepancy." It is frequently used with the preposition by to specify the cause or reason: prompted by, prompting, or prompting action. Common collocations include prompt action, prompt response, and prompt recall. The term is widely applied across contexts such as education, journalism, and policy discussions to describe a trigger or impetus for subsequent behavior.

In computing and artificial intelligence, a prompt is a request for input or instruction to a program or model. A user may be prompted for a password, and an AI system responds to a prompt the user provides. In this domain, prompted describes outputs generated in response to a given prompt, and prompting refers to the act of supplying that input to guide the system’s behavior.