Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having no hope; despairing. See Synonyms at despondent.
- adj. Offering no hope; bleak.
- adj. Incurable.
- adj. Having no possibility of solution; impossible.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Without hope; having no expectation of gaining or attaining the thing desired; despairing.
- Affording no ground of hope or expectation of good; despaired of: as, a hopeless case; a hopeless scamp.
- Unhoped for; unexpected.
- Synonyms Desponding, discouraged.
- Incurable, irremediable, incorrigible, irreparable.
Wiktionary
- adj. Destitute of hope; having no expectation of good; despairing.
- adj. Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Destitute of hope; having no expectation of good; despairing.
- adj. Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.
- adj. obsolete Unhoped for; despaired of.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. certain to fail
- adj. of a person unable to do something skillfully
- adj. without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success
- adj. (informal to emphasize how bad it is) beyond hope of management or reform
Etymologies
- hope + -less (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I am going to begin over with what you call the hopeless experiment -- and even now I think I have a chance ... a fighting chance of winning.”
“Minister of War, offered to proceed to Khartoum, but when he discovered that the abandonment of the Soudan was to be proclaimed, he absolutely refused on any consideration to carry out what he termed a hopeless errand.”
“Heaven help us to survive the hostility that has permeated our country with true understanding of issues and compassion for those in hopeless situations.”
“Violent crime and murders escalate and most people end up living in hopeless ghettos as the middle class disappears.”
“Why should the general public remain hopeless while medical bureaucrats fiddle and fuss over how much evidence is enough to merit promoting healthy endeavors like exercising, eating well, using our brains and taking care of our general health -- things which might also lessen the risk of Alzheimer's?”
The Huffington Post: Jean Carper: What's Going on With Alzheimer's Coverage in the Media?
“You will consider her remark very telling of a viewpoint that you characterize as hopeless, but you will say nothing.”
“Perhaps we should start a B list - people who are happy to be candidates in hopeless seats where not much will be asked of them, save not having media juicy problems, being prepard to turn up for a pamplet photo and the count and not being off message should a newspaper phone you.”
“Feelings to love or guilt impel families to demand all-out medical care in hopeless cases.”
“African immigrants are routinely burnt to death in hopeless conditions.”
“American POWs are dying in hopeless despair in enemy hands.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hopeless’.
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Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
fuckup, snafu, fiasco, abortion, miscarriage, implosion, contretemps, imbroglio, brouhaha, melee, kerfuffle, mayhem and 156 more...
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-more or -less
Words ending with *more or *less, more or less. Many of theses terms also appear on the list The -less Said, which see.
schemaless, unless, useless, guileless, wireless, regardless, homeless, endless, nevertheless, countless, jobless, doubtless and 434 more...
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ambilexicon
Heebie-jeebies
hands, houses, birds, boats, bathysphere, hammer, held, balance, boxes, hoax, breakfast, hear and 8 more...
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emo words
feelings...blah, blah, blah, feelings...
forsaken, anguish, angst, sorrowful, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, heartbroken, genial, chipper, inadequate, helpless and 58 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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classic695's Words
delighted, elated, energetic, excited, enthusiastic, elevated, happy, contented, fine, pleased, satisfied, compassionate and 168 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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The -less Said...
hopeless, bootless, groundless, luckless, artless, feckless, hapless, joyless, useless, penniless, childless, peerless and 310 more...
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fliti's Words
panache, mushaboom, aubergine, serpentine, glimpse, schadenfreude, syzygy, plethora, zeitgeist, defenestrate, callipygian, ubiquitous and 239 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1696 more...
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I am
considering, ruined, troubled, worried, frustrated, negative, depressing, depressed, depression, sick, exhausted, alone and 59 more...
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Blur of Blue
If sadness were a cloud of words ....
sinking, desolate, forlorn, lost, alone, meek, disheartened, bleak, cold, teary, weep, sadness and 10 more...
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climb every mountain
interesting mountains
humbug, strawberry, three-fingered jack, bolivar, driskill, neahkahnie, matterhorn, rainier, st. helens, hood, shasta, mckinley and 53 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hopeless.

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