desperately
Americanadverb
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in a reckless or dangerous way because of hopelessness or urgency.
In the movie, he’s the object of an intense police manhunt and scrambles desperately around Belfast trying to escape.
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in a way that shows urgent need or desire.
He is highly motivated to put his all into everything he does, trying desperately to prove himself.
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to a very serious or dangerous degree that leaves little hope.
People without medical insurance may often suffer without care until they are desperately ill.
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extremely or excessively.
My weekend will be desperately dull, as I've been on vacation all week and have to catch up with work.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of desperately
Explanation
When you do something desperately you do it with extreme urgency. If faced with a life-and-death situation, you might fight desperately, using any means possible to overcome the obstacles and survive. The undercurrent of the adverb desperately is one of despair, which makes sense when you consider that it comes from the Latin desperatus, meaning "given up or despaired of." You can get a good sense of the word from its context in journalist Sheilah Graham’s statement, "You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world."
Vocabulary lists containing desperately
A Long Walk to Water
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We Were Liars
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Because of Winn-Dixie
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She said she was "desperately sorry that they have been put through this trauma as a result of whatever has happened".
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Bio Orto makes an organic butternut-squash cream sauce that I bought at Eataly for $18.49 and desperately wanted to find merely fine.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Tuesday’s scene was a mixture of confusion and chaos, with first responders fanned out across two catastrophes and television news teams desperately trying to find out whether their journalists were safe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
That could make it more challenging for projects to pencil out, at a time in which the U.S. housing market desperately needs more supply.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
And indeed, Miss Mortimer was trying desperately to dismiss everyone, with handshakes all around and many exclamations of “Good night now, sleep well, sweet dreams!”
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
