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.
Mauritania, where the German delegation stopped Monday, "desperately needs it", she said, citing hundreds of thousands of refugees who have arrived from neighbouring Mali "because the situation in the Sahel is so dangerous".
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
The irony is that investors desperately tried to accumulate SpaceX stock before the IPO.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
The mental health charity Riders Minds responded to the "desperately sad news" by offering "immediate support" to members of the eventing community.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
What he did possess, however, was the confidence of the financial community the bank was meant to harness and serve—confidence the Continental Congress desperately needed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Lady Constance had held on desperately while Nutsawoo perched not six inches away from her face, gazing pleadingly into her eyes.
From "The Unseen Guest" 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.
