Despair is hopelessness at full weight: the sense that nothing can improve. Hopelessness and despondency come closest as nouns, while dejection and gloom name a lower, more passing mood. The verb is its own problem, since it takes of and needs replacements such as lose hope or give up. Desperation looks like a cousin but usually pushes a person to act.
Best synonyms for despair
Hope completely gone (noun)
- hopelessness
- despondency
- desperation
- desolation
Deep discouragement (noun)
- dejection
- discouragement
- gloom
- demoralization
- disheartenment
To lose hope (verb)
- lose hope
- give up hope
- lose heart
- abandon hope
- give up
- despond
Which synonym should you use?
| If you mean… | Best alternatives |
|---|---|
| Hope is completely gone | hopelessness, despondency |
| Hopelessness that drives frantic action | desperation |
| A low mood after a setback | dejection, discouragement, disheartenment |
| A dark mood hanging over a place | gloom |
| Morale worn down by repeated failure | demoralization, discouragement |
| Ceasing to expect things to improve | lose hope, give up hope, abandon hope |
| Losing courage, not all hope | lose heart |
| Quitting the effort altogether | give up |
Despair synonyms explained
1. Hopelessness
This is the plainest noun for the core of despair: the belief that nothing will change. It names the condition rather than the emotional collapse, so it sounds flatter and more neutral than despair, and less visibly sad than despondency.
Best used when: You are describing a settled belief that no improvement is coming.
A sense of hopelessness settled over the town after the factory closed.
2. Despondency
Hopelessness that shows in a person's mood and bearing: slumped, quiet, short of energy. It is more formal than hopelessness and nearly always describes a person's state, not a situation.
Best used when: You are describing someone whose low spirits have lasted a while.
Months of rejection letters left him in a state of despondency.
3. Desperation
Do not treat this as a stronger despair. Despair is passive and can leave a person frozen, while desperation is hopelessness that pushes someone toward a risky or extreme act.
Best used when: Hopelessness is the reason someone does something drastic.
Desperation drove them to try a cure no doctor recommended.
4. Dejection
A drop in spirits after a specific letdown, usually short of full hopelessness. It is milder than despondency and fits a lost game or a failed interview better than a lost cause.
Best used when: Someone is visibly downcast after a disappointment.
Dejection showed on every face as the team walked off the field.
5. Discouragement
The mildest noun here. Confidence has dropped, but hope is not gone. It usually follows effort that failed, such as studying, job hunting or training, and it is less atmospheric than gloom.
Best used when: A setback has made someone doubt that trying is worth it.
Discouragement set in after her third failed attempt at the exam.
6. Gloom
A mood that hangs over a person, a room or a season, more than a belief about the future. Despair rarely describes a place, but gloom can.
Best used when: You want the mood of a place or a group, not one person's conclusion.
A gloom hung over the office after the layoffs were announced.
7. Demoralization
Will and morale worn down, typically in a group such as troops, staff or a losing team, and usually by harsh conditions. It is about lost drive more than lost hope, and discouragement is its personal, smaller version.
Best used when: Repeated failure or bad treatment has drained a group's willingness to keep going.
Constant schedule changes caused widespread demoralization among the nurses.
8. Lose hope
The plain, everyday verb phrase for the verb despair. It takes of plus an -ing form, or a that clause, but not an infinitive.
Best used when: You want the safest, most natural replacement in speech or writing.
Correct: After six months, they lost hope of finding the dog.
Incorrect: After six months, they lost hope to find the dog.
Lose hope is not followed by to plus a verb. Use of with an -ing form, as in the first sentence: They lost hope of finding the dog.
9. Lose heart
Weaker than lose hope: courage or confidence fails for a particular task, but the person may not think everything is lost. It often follows a setback in a project or a contest.
Best used when: Someone is wavering on a specific effort, not giving up on life.
Several runners lost heart when the long hill came into view.
10. Give up
Broader than the others, because it means stop trying, not merely stop hoping. It stands in for despair only when the sentence is about quitting. Give up hope is the exact version.
Best used when: The point is that someone stops making an effort.
After the third denial, she gave up and moved back home.
11. Abandon hope
More formal and final than lose hope. It sounds like a decision, where lose hope sounds like something that happens to you. It is often paired with all, as in abandon all hope.
Best used when: You are reporting an official or deliberate end to expectation, such as a search effort.
The rescuers had not abandoned hope of finding survivors.
12. Despond
A rare, literary verb meaning to sink into low spirits and lose hope. Like despair, it takes no object, and it sounds out of place in everyday speech.
Best used when: You are writing in an elevated or old-fashioned register.
He did not despond even when the harvest failed.
Word forms
Adjective
- hopeless
- despondent
- dejected
- disheartened
For despairing, as in a despairing look, these fit. Avoid desperate here: it usually means driven to extreme measures, not simply without hope.
FAQ
What preposition follows the verb despair?
The verb takes of, usually before an -ing form: She despaired of ever finding work. With the noun, at and over are common for the cause (despair at the news, despair over the loss), and in despair describes the state: He put his head in his hands in despair.