Anticipatory describes the feeling or action of expecting something to happen and preparing for it in advance. When you feel anticipatory excitement before your birthday party, you're already imagining the fun you'll have. When a goalkeeper makes an anticipatory move in soccer, she's positioning herself where she predicts the ball will go before it's actually kicked.

The word captures that forward-looking quality of getting ready for what's coming. A chess player makes anticipatory moves, thinking several turns ahead. Scientists conduct anticipatory research, studying problems before they become urgent. Your body shows anticipatory responses too: you might feel your heart beat faster with anticipatory nervousness before giving a speech, or notice anticipatory hunger when you smell dinner cooking.

The key idea is acting or feeling based on what you expect will happen. If you bring an umbrella because dark clouds suggest rain, that's anticipatory thinking. If you wait until you're soaked to look for shelter, that's reactive. The ability to think in anticipatory ways, imagining future scenarios and preparing for them, is one of the things that makes humans such successful problem-solvers.