Synonyms for hopelessness
hope·less·ness

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. hopelessness

   Discouragement is the result of so much repulse or failure as wears out courage. Discouragements too frequent and long continued may produce a settled hopelessness. Hopelessness is negative, and may result from simple apathy; despondency and despair are more emphatic and decided. Despondency is an incapacity for the present exercise of hope; despair is the utter abandonment of hope. Despondency relaxes energy and effort and is always attended with sadness or distress; despair may produce a stony calmness, or it may lead to desperation. Desperation is energized despair, vigorous in action, reckless of consequences.

   Synonyms:
   despair, desperation, despondency, discouragement

   Antonyms:
   anticipation, assurance, cheer, confidence, courage, elation, encouragement, expectancy, expectation, hope, hopefulness, trust

Princeton's WordNetRate this antonym:5.0 / 1 vote

1. hopelessnessnoun

   the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success

   Antonyms:
   hopefulness

Matched Categories

1. • Despair

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "hopelessness":

   despair, desperation, powerlessness, helplessness, impotence

How to pronounce hopelessness?

How to say hopelessness in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use hopelessness in a sentence?

1. Nelly Cheboi:

   One of the hardest things about growing up in poverty is hopelessness. You think of yourself as less than, i wanted to turn that into, ‘This can happen for you, too.’.

2. Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening:

   He understands what it is like to be the top elected official in a really challenging urban area, including the area of law enforcement, what you've got here is a powder keg in the sense that the community doesn't trust the police and the police doesn't trust the community, amidst a growing sense of poverty and inequity and hopelessness.

3. The Jimmy:

   As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing.

4. Thomas Abt:

   I think, unfortunately, across the country generally, but especially in communities that are hardest hit by high homicide rates, there is this hopelessness that there's really nothing that can be done and that it is this chronic problem that is beyond sort of solving, fortunately, that's not the case.

5. Vaclav Havel:

   Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity...