The word 'eventual' most accurately means:

• A. happening at a time before now
• B. happening at a time in the future that has not been specified
• C. unpredictable or sudden
• D. final in nature

Answer: (B)

Eventual describes something that will happen at some point in the future, but the exact time isn’t specified. It points to a future outcome after a process or over time. So you’d talk about the eventual plan or the eventual outcome to mean what will happen later, not what’s happening now or what happened before. It isn’t about something sudden or unpredictable, and it isn’t specifically about being final in nature. For example, “The eventual arrival of the shipment was announced after several delays” uses eventual to indicate a future event whose timing isn’t fixed.