despair

noun

Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.

That which causes despair.

That which is despaired of.

verb

(intransitive) To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation. [(often) with of]

(transitive) To cause to despair.

(transitive, obsolete) To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of.

Roots

spero-spair · Latin · hope

Synonyms & related words for despair

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of despair — including desperation, hopelessness, despondency, dejection, despond, downheartedness. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to despair

Explore words related to despair — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include despondence, heartsickness, dolefulness, sorrow, cheerlessness, sorrowfulness, hopeless, mournfulness. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for despair

Common synonyms for despair include desperation, hopelessness, despondency, dejection, despond, downheartedness, disconsolateness, sadness — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does despair come from?

The word despair breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root -spair, from Latin spero (“hope”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.