Desperately

//ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹətli// adv

adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.

    "She desperately grabbed at the nearby branches as she heard the branch she was standing on start to snap."

  2. 2
    extremely

    "The race for silver medal was desperately close, they needed a photo finish to separate the runners."

Adverb
  1. 1
    with great urgency wordnet
  2. 2
    in intense despair wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
a corps perducarelesslydemonicallydespairinglyfanaticallyfiercely

Example

More examples

"He's desperately trying to make up for the delay."

Etymology

From desperate + -ly.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.