hopeless
adjective
Simple meaning
Without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hohpluhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhoʊpləs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success
“In an agony of hopeless grief.”
Without hope; despairing; not expecting anything positive.
Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.
Without talent, not skilled.
of an adverse condition
Incurable.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success
Used this way, hopeless is a common word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
“In an agony of hopeless grief.”
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use hopeless
- “In an agony of hopeless grief.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Having or manifesting hope.
With hope.
In a hopeless manner.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.