hopeless

Adjective
US[hoh-pluhs]/ˈhoʊpləs/2 syllables

Open English WordNet

Adjective (4)

  1. without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success“in an agony of hopeless grief”“with a hopeless sigh he sat down”Opposite hopefulSimilar despairing, black, despondent, helpless, forlorn, futureless, insoluble, abjectSee also discouraging, pessimistic, impossible
  2. of a person unable to do something skillfully“I'm hopeless at mathematics”Opposite skilledSimilar unskilled
  3. certain to fail“the situation is hopeless”Opposite possibleSimilar impossible
  4. (informal to emphasize how bad it is) beyond hope of management or reform“she handed me a hopeless jumble of papers”“he is a hopeless romantic”Opposite goodSimilar bad
Word of the day · Sep 29About this word
haphazardadjective

What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz

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Translations

Adjective destitute of hope

Italian
disperato
Portuguese
desesperado
Turkish
umutsuz
Russian
безнадёжный beznadjóžnyj
Swedish
hopplös
15 more languages
Greek
ανέλπιδος anélpidos
Hungarian
reménytelen
Portuguese (PT)
desesperado
Catalan
desesperat
Danish
håbløs
Esperanto
senespera
Finnish
toivoton
Georgian
უიმედო uimedo
Kurdish
bêhêvî
Lithuanian
beviltis
Norwegian
håpløs
Serbo-Croatian
beznadan

The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Hope′less adjective

1. Destitute of hope; having no expectation of good; despairing.

I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.— William Shakespeare

2. Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate; as, a hopeless cause.

The hopelessword of “never to return” Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.— William Shakespeare

3. Unhoped for; despaired of. obsolete John Marston

— Hope′wb-a1′>′less·ly, adverb — Hope′wb-a1′>′less·ness, noun

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

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