project

Less common meanings

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To stick out or extend beyond a surface or edge; to make something stick out in this way.

   A stone balcony projects from the second floor.

   Sharp ridges project from the canyon walls.

   UsageOften project from or project over something: a ledge projecting from the wall.

   Similarprotrude, jut, extend

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To speak or sing so that one's voice or words carry clearly over a long distance.

   The actor projected his lines to the very last seats.

   Teachers must project their words across a noisy classroom.

   UsageOften project your voice; also with no object: she can really project.

   Oppositemumble

7. 7
   public housingnounUScountable

   An urban building or group of buildings offering low-cost accommodation for low-income residents.

   The city demolished an aging housing project downtown.

   He spent his teenage years in the projects.

   UsageUsually the projects: grew up in the projects. In the singular, most often a housing project.

   Similarestate

   Note

   The phrase carries a whole social landscape, which is why it runs through hip-hop, from De La Soul's "Stakes Is High" (1996) to Kendrick Lamar's "Money Trees" (2012). Council estate and scheme cover similar ground. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • De La Soul released "Stakes Is High" in 1996. en.wikipedia.org
   • "Stakes Is High" uses "the projects" in the housing sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • Kendrick Lamar's "Money Trees" dates from 2012. en.wiktionary.org
   • "Money Trees" refers to housing projects. shazam.com
8. 8
   feelings onto othersverbtransitive

   To attribute one's own qualities, feelings, or attitudes to other people.

   She tends to project her anxieties onto her coworkers.

   He projected his own ambition onto his children, assuming they shared it.

   UsageUsually project something onto someone: project your fears onto others.

   Similartransfer, attribute, impose

   Note

   In the strict clinical sense the process is unconscious, and what gets projected is usually what one cannot accept in oneself. Casual use loosens that into any assumption that others share one's feelings. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Clinical projection is unconscious and commonly concerns aspects of oneself that one cannot accept. en.wikipedia.org
   • Clinical projection operates unconsciously. apsa.org
9. 9
   raw talentnouncountable

   A raw recruit a team hopes to develop into a strong player through coaching; a promising long shot.

   Scouts flagged the lanky teenager as a project worth a late-round pick.

   He arrived as a project but became a starter within three seasons.

   Similarprospect

   Note

   Sports talk uses the word for a person rather than a plan. A player is a project when the team is buying the future instead of the present. The opposite is the finished, no-frills player. Gabriele Marcotti uses it of footballers in 2014, so it travels beyond American football. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Gabriele Marcotti used 'project' of a footballer in 2014, demonstrating use beyond American football. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    geometryverbtransitive

    To map a figure onto a surface by drawing straight lines from a fixed point through each of its points.

    Cartographers project the globe's features onto a flat sheet using a single central point.

    The method projects every vertex of the solid onto the viewing plane.

    Similarmap

    Note

    The geometer's exact version of casting a shadow. Lines run from a single fixed point through every point of a figure until they meet a surface, and where they land is the new figure. A lamp throwing a shadow does the same thing. Mapmakers took the word for every way of flattening the globe, though only some map projections are actually built like this.

11. 11
    noundatedcountable

    A scheme with no practical chance of success; an impractical or fanciful design.

    Similarscheme, fantasy, chimera

    Note

    A dated and faintly mocking use: a man given to projects was forever hatching grand designs that came to nothing. The word hints at ambition outrunning means. In older prose it is easily mistaken for the ordinary planned undertaking. A note of folly or ridicule marks the older sense. In current writing, idle scheme says it without ambiguity. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Project has a dated sense meaning an idle or impracticable scheme, illustrated by 'a man given to projects'. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    nounobsolete

    A part that extends or juts outward from a surface; a protrusion.

    Similarprotrusion, protuberance

    Note

    The obsolete noun for what jutting out produces: a carved ledge, a bay, a ridge standing proud of a wall. Modern English says projection, protrusion or protuberance instead. A jutting part called a project today would simply be misread as a planned undertaking, so the word survives only in older descriptions of buildings and bodies. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Project has an obsolete noun sense meaning a projection or protruding part. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    nounobsolete

    An object hurled or discharged through the air, especially as a weapon.

    Similarmissile

    Note

    The most literal of all the senses: Latin prōiectus, "thrown forth," is exactly what a missile is. Today projectile and missile do this job, and the noun project means a plan or an undertaking. Used this way today, it would read as a mistake. Keep it for historical writing or for prose that deliberately sounds archaic. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Latin prōiectus means 'thrown forth', as applied to a missile. en.wiktionary.org
    • Project historically meant a projectile or missile. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verb

    To convert spatial data from one map projection or coordinate system into another.
15. 15
    verb

    Of a neuron or group of neurons, to extend axons reaching a remote location and thereby influence it.