Synonyms for despair
dɪˈspɛər

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate these synonyms:

1. despairnoun

   Synonyms:
   desperation, hopelessness, despondency

2. despairnoun

   Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.

   He turned around in despair, aware that he was not going to survive

   Synonyms:
   hopelessness, desperation, despondency

3. despairverb

   To cause to despair.

   Synonyms:
   despondency, desperation, hopelessness

English Synonyms and Antonyms(4.00 / 3 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. despair

   Discouragement is the result of so much repulse or failure as wears out courage. Discouragements too frequent and long continued may produce a settled hopelessness. Hopelessness is negative, and may result from simple apathy; despondency and despair are more emphatic and decided. Despondency is an incapacity for the present exercise of hope; despair is the utter abandonment of hope. Despondency relaxes energy and effort and is always attended with sadness or distress; despair may produce a stony calmness, or it may lead to desperation. Desperation is energized despair, vigorous in action, reckless of consequences.

   Synonyms:
   desperation, despondency, discouragement, hopelessness

   Antonyms:
   anticipation, assurance, cheer, confidence, courage, elation, encouragement, expectancy, expectation, hope, hopefulness, trust

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms(4.33 / 3 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. despairnoun

   Synonyms:
   hopelessness, despondency, desperation

   Antonyms:
   hopefulness, elation, anticipation, hilarity, confidence, sanguineness, expectation

2. despairverb

   Synonyms:
   despond, faint

   Antonyms:
   hope, trust, confide, rely, presume, rally

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. despair, desperationnoun

   a state in which all hope is lost or absent

   "in the depths of despair"; "they were rescued from despair at the last minute"; "courage born of desperation"

   Synonyms:
   desperation

   Antonyms:
   hope

2. despairverb

   the feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well

   "they moaned in despair and dismay"; "one harsh word would send her into the depths of despair"

   Synonyms:
   desperation

   Antonyms:
   hope

3. despairverb

   abandon hope; give up hope; lose heart

   "Don't despair--help is on the way!"

   Antonyms:
   hope

Matched Categories

1. • Condition

Dictionary of English Synonymes(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. despairnoun

   Synonyms:
   desperation, loss of hope, complete or utter hopelessness

2. despairverb

   Synonyms:
   despond, lose all hope, give up all expectation, be without any hope

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. despairnoun

   Synonyms:
   hopelessness, desperation, inconsolableness

PPDB, the paraphrase database(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these paraphrases:

1. List of paraphrases for "despair":

   desperation, hopelessness, distress, desolation, despondency, desperate

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How to use despair in a sentence?

1. Yon Goicoechea:

   We have to fight against demobilization and despair, we Venezuelans have to keep consistent in our support for Guaido and be patient.

2. Matthew Arnold:

   Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair.

3. Lord Tennyson:

   I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.

4. Abraham Joshua Heschel:

   A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.

5. Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate:

   I often think of Shelley's famous insightful sonnet "Ozymandias" that brilliantly depicts the inevitable fall of all foolishly arrogant leaders and their huge empires built in pretensions to their self-proclaimed greatness. Nature and Time always prevail and overtake ultimately, when nothing remains of those great empires or the arrogant leaders.....and only the lone and level sands stretch far away. Vanity, false pride and arrogance never win, in my view. Humility is the true key success. Here is that famous sonnet "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley, written in January 1818, nearly 200 years ago. "I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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