Word.ws English Dictionary

despondence

UK/dɪˈspɒndəns/

despondence noun: the state of being downcast or despondent.

Noun

despondence (countable and uncountable, plural despondences)

  1. The state of being downcast or despondent.
    • When adverse winds and waves arise,
      And in my heart despondence sighs,
      ....
      Grateful I hear the kind decree
      That "as my day,—my strength shall be."—1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, "as thy day, so shall thy strength be.", pages 88–89
    Synonyms:
    despondency

Synonyms of despondence

Forms of despondence

pluraldespondences

Origin of despondence

From despond + -ence.

Questions about despondence

What does despondence mean?
Despondence means the state of being downcast or despondent.
What part of speech is despondence?
Despondence is a noun.
How do you pronounce despondence?
Despondence is pronounced /dɪˈspɒndəns/ (UK).
What is the plural of despondence?
The plural of despondence is despondences.

Words near despondence in the dictionary

  1. Despoina
  2. despoliation
  3. despoliations
  4. despond
  5. desponded
  6. despondence
  7. despondences
  8. despondencies
  9. despondency
  10. despondent
  11. despondently

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: despondence (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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Cite this entry: “despondence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/despondence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.