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hopeless

[ hohp-lis ]
/ ˈhoʊp lɪs /
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See synonyms for: hopeless / hopelessly / hopelessness on Thesaurus.com
adjective
providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate: a hopeless cancer diagnosis.
without hope; despairing: hopeless grief.
impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc.: Balancing my budget is hopeless.
not able to perform, work, learn, or act as desired; inadequate for the purpose: As a poker player, you're hopeless.
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Origin of hopeless

First recorded in 1560–70; hope + -less

synonym study for hopeless

2. Hopeless, despairing, despondent, desperate all describe an absence of hope. Hopeless is used of a feeling of futility and passive abandonment of oneself to fate: Hopeless and grim, he still clung to the cliff. Despairing refers to the loss of hope in regard to a particular situation, whether important or trivial; it suggests an intellectual judgment concerning probabilities: despairing of victory; despairing of finding his gloves. Despondent always suggests melancholy and depression; it refers to an emotional state rather than to an intellectual judgment: Despondent over his failing career, he fell back into substance and alcohol use. At the end of her marriage, she became despondent and suspicious. Desperate conveys a suggestion of recklessness resulting from loss of hope: As the time grew shorter, he became desperate. It may also refer to something arising from extreme need or danger: a desperate remedy; a desperate situation. See also despair.

OTHER WORDS FROM hopeless

hope·less·ly, adverbhope·less·ness, noun

Words nearby hopeless

Hope diamond, hopeful, hopefully, hopeful monster, Hopeh, hopeless, hopelessness, Hope springs eternal, Hopewell, hophead, hop hornbeam
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

Words related to hopeless

desperate, forlorn, helpless, impossible, pointless, sad, tragic, useless, bad, beyond recall, cynical, dejected, demoralized, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, discouraging, downhearted, fatal, gone

How to use hopeless in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for hopeless

hopeless
/ (ˈhəʊplɪs) /
adjective
having or offering no hope
impossible to analyse or solve
unable to learn, function, etc
informal without skill or ability

Derived forms of hopeless

hopelessly, adverbhopelessness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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