hopeless

American  

[hohp-lis] / ˈhoʊp lɪs /

adjective

1. providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate.

   a hopeless cancer diagnosis.

   Synonyms:

   incurable, remediless, irremediable

2. without hope; despairing.

   hopeless grief.

   Synonyms:

   dejected, disconsolate, forlorn

3. impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc..

   Balancing my budget is hopeless.

4. 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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hopeless British  

/ ˈhəʊplɪs /

adjective

1. having or offering no hope

2. impossible to analyse or solve

3. unable to learn, function, etc

4. informal without skill or ability

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Related Words

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 Word Forms

• hopelessly adverb
• hopelessness noun

Etymology

Origin of hopeless

First recorded in 1560–70; hope + -less

Explanation

Someone who's hopeless believes that nothing good can happen — a happy ending seems impossible. If you realize there's no way you'll pass your biology class, it's a hopeless situation. When you're struggling to learn a new language or tackling a difficult task and feeling utterly discouraged, you can say that you're hopeless. In other words, you have no hope that things will work out the way you wish they would. A plan that's doomed to failure is also hopeless, because there's no chance that it'll be successful: "His scheme to save enough money to backpack through Europe is hopeless, because he still hasn't found a job."

Example Sentences

But today I am tasked with the seemingly simpler but hopeless job of putting life back into writing.

From Slate • Mar. 20, 2026

The quality of it was overshadowed only by Verstappen's even more impressive rise from a seemingly hopeless position at the end of the summer.

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026

Maybe I’m betraying my hopeless rationalism, but if I learned of the reality of time travel and “aerial spirits,” I’d be a little more preoccupied by it than Iris seems to be.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

It usually involved a down-on-her-luck hopeless romantic or a mature workaholic attempting to be more spontaneous in her dating life.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026

“Nothing’s hopeless until you give up hope,” said Grace.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Related Words

• desperate
• forlorn
• helpless
• impossible
• pointless
• sad
• tragic
• useless