Desperate

//ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹət//

Synonyms for "desperate" (132 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (27)

Strong matches (39)

Adjective(3 words)
despairingdiredo-or-die

Related words (66)

Adjective(1 words)
heroic

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

7 relation types

More general

2 entries

Synonyms

3 entries

Related terms

3 entries

derived

8 entries

is a

1 entries

related to

5 entries

similar

11 entries

Translations

70 translations across 40 languages.

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Arabic

3 entries
  • قَانِط adj (filled with despair)
  • مَيْئُوس مِنْهُ adj (beyond hope)
  • يَائِس adj (filled with despair)

Armenian

2 entries
  • հանդուգն adj (having reckless abandon)
  • հուսահատ adj (filled with despair)

Azerbaijani

2 entries
  • çarəsiz adj (filled with despair)
  • çarəsiz adj (beyond hope)

Belarusian

1 entries
  • ро́спачны adj (filled with despair)

Bulgarian

2 entries
  • безразсъден adj (having reckless abandon)
  • отча́ян adj (filled with despair)

Catalan

2 entries
  • desesperat adj (filled with despair)
  • desesperat adj (having reckless abandon)

Chinese Mandarin

1 entries
  • 絕望 /绝望 adj (filled with despair)

Czech

1 entries
  • zoufalý adj (filled with despair)

Danish

1 entries
  • desperat adj (filled with despair)

Dutch

4 entries
  • desperaat adj (filled with despair)
  • hopeloos adj (filled with despair)
  • radeloos adj (filled with despair)
  • vertwijfeld adj (filled with despair)

Faroese

2 entries
  • hopleysur adj (filled with despair)
  • vónleysur adj (filled with despair)

Finnish

3 entries
  • epätoivoinen adj (filled with despair)
  • epätoivoinen adj (having reckless abandon)
  • epätoivoinen adj (extremely intense)

French

1 entries
  • désespéré adj (filled with despair)

Galician

1 entries
  • desesperado adj (filled with despair)

Georgian

1 entries
  • სასოწარკვეთილი adj (filled with despair)

German

4 entries
  • aussichtslos adj (beyond hope)
  • hoffnungslos adj (beyond hope)
  • irrsinnig adj (having reckless abandon)
  • sehnsuchtsvoll verlangend adj (in dire need (of something))

Greek

1 entries
  • απελπισμένος adj (filled with despair)

Hebrew

1 entries
  • מיואש adj (filled with despair)

Hungarian

1 entries
  • kétségbeesett adj (filled with despair)

Indonesian

1 entries
  • kebelet adj (in dire need (of something))

Italian

1 entries
  • disperato adj (filled with despair)

Japanese

1 entries
  • 絶望的な adj (filled with despair)

Khmer

2 entries
  • ជាខ្លាំង adj (having reckless abandon)
  • ដែលសាហាវ adj (having reckless abandon)

Korean

2 entries
  • 절망적인 adj (filled with despair)
  • 필사적인 adj (filled with despair)

Latin

1 entries
  • dēspērātus adj (filled with despair)

Macedonian

1 entries
  • очаен adj (filled with despair)

Malay

1 entries
  • terdesak adj (having reckless abandon)

Māori

1 entries
  • nanakia adj (having reckless abandon)

Norwegian

1 entries
  • fortvillet adj (filled with despair)

Norwegian Bokmål

1 entries
  • desperat adj (filled with despair)

Norwegian Nynorsk

1 entries
  • desperat adj (filled with despair)

Polish

1 entries
  • zdesperowany adj (filled with despair)

Portuguese

2 entries
  • desesperado adj (filled with despair)
  • desesperado adj (having reckless abandon)

Russian

2 entries
  • безрассу́дный adj (having reckless abandon)
  • отча́янный adj (filled with despair)

Serbo-Croatian

2 entries
  • očajan adj (filled with despair)
  • очајан adj (filled with despair)

Slovak

1 entries
  • zúfalý adj (filled with despair)

Slovene

1 entries
  • obupen adj (filled with despair)

Spanish

4 entries
  • acuciante adj (extremely intense)
  • apremiante adj (extremely intense)
  • desesperado adj (filled with despair)
  • desesperado adj (extremely intense)

Ukrainian

3 entries
  • відчайду́шний adj (having reckless abandon)
  • відчайду́шний adj (extremely intense)
  • розпа́чливий adj (filled with despair)

Yiddish

1 entries
  • פֿאַרייִאושט adj (filled with despair)

Sample sentences

28 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

Desperate men often do desperate things.

Source: tatoeba (30279)

The young man must have felt very desperate when he resorted to such a terrible act.

Source: tatoeba (41401)

The Clinton camp became desperate to eliminate the white votes Obama had got in both states.

Source: tatoeba (182606)

Suicide is a desperate act.

Source: tatoeba (264440)

Showing 4 of 28 available sentences.

More for "desperate"

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