Desperation

//ˌdɛspəˈɹeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up of hope. countable, uncountable

    "in desperation"

  2. 2
    desperate recklessness wordnet
  3. 3
    A state of despair, or utter hopelessness; abandonment of hope. countable, uncountable

    "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."

  4. 4
    a state in which all hope is lost or absent wordnet
  5. 5
    Reckless fury. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    Ellipsis of bladder desperation. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
despairdespairacediaanguishanxietyanxiousness

Example

More examples

"We arrived at that plan out of pure desperation, but the book sold well."

Etymology

From Middle English desperacion, desperacioun, desperation, disparacion, disperacion, disperacioun, dispiracioune, dysperacioun, from Middle French desperation and its etymon Latin dēspērātiō, dēspērātiōnis. By surface analysis, desperate + -ion.

Related phrases

giving upneeding badlyout of

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