Synonyms for desperate
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Hopeless
hopeless, despairing, forlorn, frantic, dire, heroic, mad, despondent, lost, wretched, furious, serious, dangerous, extreme, reckless, outrageous, wild, critical, atrocious, monstrous, heinous, headlong
Other
do-or-die, fool-hardy, desponding rare
Definitions
- adj. 1
In dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.
desperate to eat; desperate for attention
Related words
- Word family
- desperately desperation despair desperado
Example sentences
- heroic The heroic man is described as a thoroughbred horse.
- hopeless Lee did not agree that the situation was hopeless.
- frantic Tom told me that he thought that Mary was frantic.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| desperate | rising | |
| heroic | steady | |
| hopeless | rising | |
| frantic | rising | |
| despairing | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- mad1
- 4 letters
- lost1, wild1, dire1
- 6 letters
- heroic3
- 7 letters
- serious3, extreme2, furious3, frantic2, heinous2, forlorn2
- 8 letters
- critical3, reckless2, hopeless2, wretched2, headlong2
- 9 letters
- dangerous3, monstrous2, atrocious3
- 10 letters
- outrageous3, despondent3, despairing3, desponding
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (heroic3 = 3 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- désespéré
- Italiano
- disperato
- Deutsch
- hoffnungslos