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.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

depression The report states that there will be a depression.
sadness There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes.
gloom I hoped you could hurl some lumens into the gloom.
despair Tom was in absolute despair when his dog ran away.
hopelessness It is with hopelessness that true optimism begins.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
despondency		steady
depression		rising
sadness		rising
gloom		rising
dejection		rising
despair		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: woe¹
5 letters: blues¹, grief¹, gloom¹
6 letters: misery³, sorrow², unhope
7 letters: sadness², despair²
8 letters: distress²
9 letters: dejection
10 letters: depression³, melancholy⁴, infelicity
11 letters: desperation⁴, unhappiness⁴, melancholia, despondence, forlornness
12 letters: hopelessness³, wretchedness
13 letters: sorrowfulness, heartsickness
14 letters: discouragement⁴
15 letters: crestfallenness

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (misery³ = 3 syllables).

In other languages

Français: abattement
Deutsch: Abgeschlagenheit
Català: abatiment