Word.ws English Dictionary

despairful

Syllables: des·pair·fulUK/dɪˈspɛːfəl/

despairful adjective: characterised by despair; hopeless.

Adjective

despairful (comparative more despairful, superlative most despairful)

  1. Characterised by despair; hopeless.
    • […] wretches, whose vnhappie cace, / After lost credite and consumed thrift, / At last them driuen hath to this despairefull drift.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • The captain went forward interfering rather than assisting. I was alternately despairful and desperate.1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 5”, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of...

Forms of despairful

comparativemore despairful
superlativemost despairful

Origin of despairful

From despair + -ful.

Words formed from despairful

Questions about despairful

What does despairful mean?
Despairful means characterised by despair; hopeless.
What part of speech is despairful?
Despairful is an adjective.
How do you pronounce despairful?
Despairful is pronounced /dɪˈspɛːfəl/ (UK).

Words near despairful in the dictionary

  1. despaired
  2. despairer
  3. despairers
  4. despairest
  5. despaireth
  6. despairful
  7. despairfully
  8. despairfulness
  9. despairing
  10. despairingly
  11. despairingness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: despairful (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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