noun ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A lack of hope; despair. countable, uncountable

   "Depression can induce an overwhelming sense of sadness and hopelessness."

2. 2
   the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

desperationdespondencyabsurdityacediaaloofnessapathy

Antonyms

All antonyms

hopehopefulnessrespair

Example

More examples

"Mennad spoke about his depression and hopelessness."

Etymology

From hopeless + -ness.

Related phrases

Beck Hopelessness Scale

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