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.
When these interventions helped my inflammation but didn’t stimulate much hair growth, I saw three additional dermatologists, desperately seeking a solution for a condition I had poured thousands of dollars into treating.
From Slate • May 23, 2026
Critics on the Croisette are starting to resemble that classic comic-strip panel in which an explorer crawls desperately across the sand toward an oasis that’s only a mirage.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Even as Apple was nearing collapse, NeXT was desperately trying to dig itself out of the many holes that Jobs had dug for it.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 17, 2026
Defending champions Argentina and Lionel Messi head into the tournament among the favourites, alongside European champions Spain, 2018 World Cup winners France and England, desperately chasing a first major tournament win since 1966.
From Barron's • May 10, 2026
He whirled around and began pedaling back toward the library just as desperately as he’d been pedaling away from it.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
