hopeless

[ hohp-lis ]

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.

hopeless

/ 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

Derived Forms

• ˈhopelessness, noun
• ˈhopelessly, adverb

Other Words From

• hope·less·ly adverb
• hope·less·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of hopeless¹

First recorded in 1560–70; hope + -less

Synonym Study

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. despair.

Example Sentences

When you’re under stress and feel hopeless, it’s more likely that these conflicts spiral into violence.

From ProPublica

Helpless, hopeless, despondent, all sorts of sad emotions in the English language that you can think of.

From MIT Technology Review

While it may feel hopeless to see all of this unfold, just remember that you can still take responsibility in securing the health of yourself and the people you love.

From Popular-Science

Nothing formally came of it, but one of the men, the pro-democracy economist Fouad Abdelmoumni, says his friends high up at the agency told him the letter was hopeless and urged him to drop the matter.

From MIT Technology Review

Despite the result of this vote, the situation is not entirely hopeless in “Europe’s last dictatorship”.

From No Straight News

Society itself must be changed, right out from under our hopeless cases.

From The Daily Beast

These formations streamed from Rwanda with the same hopeless shuffle as they did from Bosnia and now as they do from Syria.

From The Daily Beast

Inside, it seemed hopeless, for every chair in sight was occupied, and a dozen men were asleep on the floor.

From The Daily Beast

Anyone who takes pot shots at a lovely wading bird is a hopeless defective, in my view, an evolutionary mistake.

From The Daily Beast

The Economist cover in 2000 dubbed it “The Hopeless Continent,” with a photo of a grinning, heavily armed soldier.

From The Daily Beast

The conflict of these certainties left hopeless disorder in every corner of his being.

From Project Gutenberg

As the hopeless wish passed through his soul, the iron entered with it, but did not pass away.

From Project Gutenberg

His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him.

From Project Gutenberg

The Austrian parlementaire pointed out that it was hopeless to continue the struggle as he had neither provisions nor ammunition.

From Project Gutenberg

It was not a condition of life which fitted her, and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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