What is another word for desperation?

Synonyms for desperation
ˌdɛs pəˈreɪ ʃəndes·per·a·tion

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word desperation.

English Synonyms and Antonyms2.7 / 3 votes

  1. desperation

    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:
    despair, despondency, discouragement, hopelessness

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

Princeton's WordNet0.0 / 0 votes

  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:
    despair

  2. desperationnoun

    desperate recklessness

    "it was a policy of desperation"

    Synonyms:
    despair

Matched Categories

Dictionary of English Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. desperationnoun

    Synonyms:
    despair, hopelessness

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words3.5 / 2 votes

  1. desperationnoun

    Synonyms:
    despair, hopelessness, recklessness

PPDB, the paraphrase database0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of paraphrases for "desperation":

    despair, hopelessness, distress, despondency

How to pronounce desperation?

How to say desperation in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#12669distress
#15811despair
#23875desperation
#48812hopelessness
#73210discouragement
#108546despondency

How to use desperation in a sentence?

  1. Debasish Mridha, M.D.:

    Desperation is often more powerful than inspiration.

  2. Peter S. Prescott:

    Many books today suggest that the mass of women lead lives of noisy desperation.

  3. Richard Aboulafia:

    There's that bottom of the market desperation pricing that's very appealing, but that's not now, we're past that. There are airline execs who would like to think when manufacturers lose pricing power, they never get it back. But that's not the way it works.

  4. Bobi Wine:

    Given the widespread public desperation in Uganda, all many people want is a person who shows the potential of removing Museveni. All else is secondary.

  5. Donovan Mitchell:

    This series is not over, we got a lot of life left to give, a lot of juice to give and we just got to go out there and play with a level of desperation that we’d never played with before, otherwise we’ll be home.


Translations for desperation

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"desperation." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 26 Jan. 2025. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/desperation>.

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