Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Hopeless |
HopelessAdjective1. 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". 2. Of a person unable to do something skillfully; "I'm hopeless at mathematics". 3. Certain to fail; "the situation is hopeless". 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". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "hopeless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1379. (references) |
Synonym: HopelessSynonym: irrecoverable. (additional references) |
| Antonym: hopeful (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Hopelessness | Adjective: hopeless, desperate, despairing, gone, in despair, au desespoir, forlorn, desolate; inconsolable; (dejected); broken hearted. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Hopeless |
| English words defined with "hopeless": A forlorn hope, abjectly ♦ dark, Despairful, desperate, despondence, despondency, dire, disconsolateness, dour ♦ forlorn hope ♦ glowering, glum ♦ heartsickness, hopelessly, hunted ♦ incompetent, Irrelievable ♦ Judas, Jude ♦ moody, morose ♦ otherwise ♦ Perdue, Poverty grass ♦ resignedly ♦ Saint Jude, saturnine, sour, St Jude, sullen ♦ Thaddaeus, To break the heart of. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "hopeless": Corpse ♦ Grave, Grin and Bear It ♦ Intersil 6100, Inundation ♦ Judgment Day ♦ Letter ♦ Manuscript, Misnomers, Myrra ♦ SADDUCEE. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "hopeless": Despairful. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You're hopeless. (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; writing credit: Frances Walsh) And you friendless, helpless, hopeless, brainless (The Princess Bride; writing credit: William Goldman) And he was feckless! And he was hopeless! And he was a fool (Oliver Twist; writing credit: Alan Bleasdale; Charles Dickens) Oh, it's hopeless. Utterly, utterly hopeless (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) That's it. You're hopeless, you're pathetic, you're the worst straight man I ever worked with (The Kids in the Hall; writing credit: Dave Foley; Bruce McCulloch) | |
Lyrics | And when it seems that i'm hopeless (Dear Mama; performing artist: 2Pac) Guess that I am just a hopeless case (Can't Get Used To Losing You; performing artist: Andy Williams) It’s hopeless, I’ve finally Hopeless noticed that ("Addictive Love"; performing artist: BeBe& CeCe Winans) Hopeless romantics, here we go again (New Kid In Town; performing artist: EAGLES) There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner whom would hurt all mankind ("People Get Ready"; performing artist: The Impressions) | |
Clever | Man's way leads to a hopeless end! Gods way leads to an endless hope! (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965) Sweedie's Hopeless Love (1915) The Hopeless Dawn (1913) A Hopeless Passion (1911) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Smokeless? Means Hopeless! / Douglas Cooley. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | What every husband knows. The hopeless effort to restore some order to the pages of a ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Ernest W. Kirk Jr. with his two sons on their farm near Ordway, Colorado. Fruits of their farm, coming from their labor, which has placed them in a few months from almost hopeless condition to a family with net worth approaching a thousand dollars. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Max Sparks' children playing. The family is destitute with almost a hopeless outlook. Near Long Lake, Wisconsin. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "The exit" by MESH'AL A. Commentary: "There's always an exit for everything, just dont be hopeless - entrance of mosque." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Dorothy Day | No one has the right to feel hopeless, there's too much work to do. |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning | I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | When first sounded on the subject, he was so miserable, that they were almost hopeless. |
Last Chance To See | Douglas Adams | I suddenly felt, well, terribly old as I watched a mudskipper hopping along with what now seemed to me like a wonderful sense of hopeless, boundless naive optimism |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | If the imaginative faculty refused to act at such an hour, it might well be deemed a hopeless case |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | And if a barn stood on high ground, it was filled with people, shivering and hopeless. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | If you are depressed, you should consider seeking professional help. Feeling hopeless, worthless, guilty, or that life is not worth living are signs of depression. (references) | |
Political Economy | Georgia | The situation is hardly hopeless if there can be progress on paying wages and salaries, improving management, reducing corruption and securing multiple energy supplies, foreign and local. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Hopeless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.36% of the time. "Hopeless" is used about 756 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.36% | 736 | 9,210 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.51% | 19 | 80,337 |
| Noun (plural) | 0.13% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 756 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "hopeless": be hopeless at smth. ♦ have become a hopeless liar ♦ hopeless case ♦ hopeless situation. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "hopeless": near-hopeless. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "hopeless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pa zgjidhje, i pashpresë (desperate, disconsolate, frustrate, frustrated, goner, unlikely), i pashërueshëm (confirmed, cureless, incurable, remediless), i parealizueshëm (impossible, impracticable), i pandreqshëm (beyond retrieve, compulsive, fatal, incorrigible, inveterate, irreclaimable, irredeemable, irremediable, irreparable, irretraceable, irretrievable, perverse, remediless, unimprovable), i pamundur (impossible, out of the question), i dëshpëruar (depressed, depressing, desperate, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, downcast, forlorn, heavyhearted, sad), e keqe (affliction, bad, evil, harm, ill, pest, pestilence, wrong), e dështuar. (various references) | |
Arabic | يائس (despairing, desperate, lost), ميئوس منه (being out of the running), متعذر (impossible, unattainable), مستحيلا, غير مؤهل (disqualified, inadequate, incompetent, ineligible, unfit, unqualified), عضال (cancerous, incurable, irremediable, obstinate, stubborn). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | безнадежден (desperate, forlorn, irredeemable, up the spout), безизходен (inextricable). (various references) | |
Chinese | 絕望 (desperation, forlorn), 绝望 (Despair, Desperate, hopelessness), 不可救藥 (beyond cure, incorrigible, incurable), 不可收拾 (irremediable, out of hand, unmanageable). (various references) | |
Czech | zoufalý (agonized, despairing, desperate, forlorn, sorry), totální (absolute, all out, blank, total, utter, wholesale), strašný (awful, chronic, dire, distressing, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, gruesome, hairy, hellish, hideous, horrible, horrific, terrible, tremendous), nenapravitelný (confirmed, dyed in the wool, incorrigible, irrecoverable, irredeemable, irreparable, utter), marný (fruitless, futile, unsuccessful, useless, vain, wasteful), beznadìjný (desperate, lost, out of hope). (various references) | |
Finnish | toivoton (desperate). (various references) | |
French | sans espoir (forlorn hope), nullard, nul, indécrottable, incompétent, impossible, désespéré. (various references) | |
German | hoffnungslos (abysmal, desperate, forlorn, gloomily, hopelessly, irredeemably, irremediably, unhopeful), aussichtslos (desperate, frustrating, hopelessly, lost, pointless, unlikely, unpromising, unpromisingly). (various references) | |
Greek | άπελπισ, απελπισμένοσ (abject, desolate, despairing, desperate), απελπισμένος (baleful, desperate), απαρηγόρητοσ (comfortless, disconsolate, inconsolable, unconsoled). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מיואש (desperate), ללא תקנה (incorrigible, irrevocable), אבוד (forfeiture, gone, loss, lost, missing, ruin, waste), חסר תקוה, נואש (desperate, forborn). (various references) | |
Hungarian | reménytelen (beyond hope, beyond recovery, desperate, gone, to be past praying for, to be past recovery). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tiada harapan, putus asa (desperate, disconsolate, dispirited). (various references) | |
Italian | senza speranza (all up), irrimediabilmente, disperato (despairing, despairs, desperate, desponded). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 駄目 (no good, useless), 絶望的 (desperate), 甲斐無し (useless, worthless), 仕様の無い (good-for-nothing, incorrigible), 仕様のない (good-for-nothing, incorrigible), あお向け (face up, facial gesture of pulling one's eyelid down and sticking out one's tongue, no good, useless), 心細い (discouraging, disheartening, forlorn, helpless, lonely, unpromising). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぜつぼうてき (desperate), しようのない (good-for-nothing, incorrigible), かいなし (useless, worthless), こころぼそい (discouraging, disheartening, forlorn, helpless, lonely, unpromising), あかん (no good, useless), だめ (no good, useless). (various references) | |
Korean | 희망 없는. (various references) | |
Manx | neufeeu (inadequate, paltry, undeserving, valueless, worthless), gyn doghys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | opelesshay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sem soluo, sem remdio (incurable), sem esperana (beyond hope), incorrigvel (incorrigible), desesperado (abysmal, desperate, despondent, gone, in despair), desanimado (broken-down, cheerless, crestfallen, damp, depressed, despondent, dispirited, down, downcast, down-hearted, hagridden, heavy-laden, languid, low, low-spirited, out of gas, out of heart, sorry). (various references) | |
Romanian | iremediabil (helpless, irrecoverable, irrecoverably, irredeemable, irremediable, irremediably, irreparable, irreparably), inveterat (arrant, confirmed, deep-seated, die hard, engrained, ingrained, irreclaimable), incorigibil (incorrigible, irreclaimable, irremediable), fãrã speranţe (beyond hope, irredeemable), deznãdãjduit (despairing, despairingly, desperate, despondent, forlorn, irredeemable), dezesperant (heart-breaking), desperat (abject, desperado, desperate, desperately, forlorn, gone, madman, pathetic, pathetically, temerarious), înrãit (confirmed, double-dyed, ingrained, inveterate, wicked). (various references) | |
Russian | безнадежный (desperate, disperate, irredeemable, too far gone). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | beznadežan (desperate), bezizlazan (no go). (various references) | |
Spanish | sin esperanza (hopelessly, too far gone), irremediable (beyond help, incurable, irremediable, remediless), incurable (cureless, incurable), imposible (impossible, irrelevant, no), desesperado (despairs, desperado, desperate, desponded, in despair, last ditch, unattended, unpromising, unpromisingly), desahuciado (far gone, goner). (various references) | |
Swedish | hopplös (abysmal, beyond hope, desperate, forlorn, no-win, redemption). (various references) | |
Thai | ซึ่งสิ้นหวัง. (various references) | |
Turkish | umutsuz (bereft of hope, bleak, dead end, despairing, desperate, despondent, futureless, heavy-hearted, past hope, remediless), umut vermeyen (uninspiring, unpromising), ümitsiz (drear, dreary, forlorn, frantic, gloomy, gone, past cure, past hope, pathetic). (various references) | |
Turkmen | gutulgysyz, зykgynsyz (continual, desperate). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | зневірений (desperate, forlorn), безвихідний, безнадійний (all up, desperate, incorrigible, irredeemable). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tuyệt vọng thâm căn cố đế, thất vọng (chap-fallen, chop, depressed, despairing, despondingly, disappointedly, downcast, heartsick), không thể sửa chữa được nữa, không hy vọng, không còn hy vọng gì vào được. (various references) | |
Welsh | anobeithiol (despairing). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "hopeless": hopelessly, hopelessness, hopelessnesses. (additional references) | |
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"Hopeless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: hapeless, holeless, hopeles, hopeness, hopless, hoppoles, opeless, ropeless. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "hopeless" (pronounced hō"plus) |
| 4 | -p l u s | accomplice, hapless, helpless, shapeless, sleepless, surplus, topless, zipless. |
| 3 | -l u s | acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, backless, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, calculus, callous, callus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, digitalis, directionless, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, frivolous, fruitless, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, harmless, headless, heartless, homeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, querulous, reckless, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, ridiculous, riskless, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shiftless, skinless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-h-l-o-p-s-s" | |
-2 letters: elopes, eposes, hosels, sheols, shleps, sleeps, slopes, speels, splosh. | |
-3 letters: elope, heels, helos, helps, holes, hopes, hosel, hoses, loess, lopes, loses, peels, peles, pesos, poles, poses, posse, seels, seeps, sheep, sheol, shlep, shoes, shops, sleep, sloes, slope, slops, slosh, soles, sophs, speel. | |
-4 letters: eels, else, epos, eses, heel, helo, help, hoes, hole, holp. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-h-l-o-p-s-s" | |
+1 letter: heelposts, pestholes. | |
+2 letters: depolishes, hopelessly, repolishes, sheepfolds, telophases. | |
+3 letters: hopefulness. | |
+4 letters: clothespress, hopelessness, horseplayers, lithospheres, polyhedroses, preschoolers, psephologies, reupholsters, siphonostele, spermophiles, telephonists, upholsterers, upholsteries. | |
+5 letters: hopefulnesses, nympholepsies, phraseologies, siphonosteles. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
