aspirant

aspirant
    adj 1: desiring or striving for recognition or advancement [syn:
           {aspirant}, {aspiring(a)}, {wishful}]
    n 1: an ambitious and aspiring young person; "a lofty aspirant";
         "two executive hopefuls joined the firm"; "the audience was
         full of Madonna wannabes" [syn: {aspirant}, {aspirer},
         {hopeful}, {wannabe}, {wannabee}]
    

Aspirant \As*pir"ant\ (?; 277), a. [Cf. F. aspirant, p. pr. of
   aspirer. See {Aspire}.]
   Aspiring.
   [1913 Webster]
    

Aspirant \As*pir"ant\, n. [Cf. F. aspirant.]
   One who aspires; one who eagerly seeks some high position or
   object of attainment.
   [1913 Webster]

         In consequence of the resignations . . . the way to
         greatness was left clear to a new set of aspirants.
                                                  --Macaulay.
   [1913 Webster]
    

54 Moby Thesaurus words for "aspirant":
      Leibnizian optimist, Pollyanna, addict, also-ran, applicant,
      aspirer, baby kisser, bidder, candidate, chiliast, claimant,
      collector, coveter, dark horse, defeated candidate, desirer,
      devotee, dud, fancier, favorite son, freak, hankerer, hopeful,
      hoper, irrepressible optimist, lame duck, lover, millenarian,
      millennialist, millennian, office seeker, optimist, perfectibilist,
      perfectibilitarian, perfectionist, petitioner,
      philosophical optimist, political hopeful, postulant,
      presidential timber, ray of sunshine, running mate, seeker,
      solicitant, solicitor, stalking-horse, suitor, suppliant,
      supplicant, utopian, votary, wanter, wisher, yearner