despondency

/dis'pɔndənsi/

Thân thiện

A young woman sits alone on a park bench, overcome with despondency.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A state of low spirits and loss of hope: Despondency is a profound feeling of dejection, discouragement, and hopelessness, often arising from difficult circumstances.

Usage

• Despondency is an uncountable noun describing a deep emotional state.
• It is typically used in formal or literary contexts to describe a severe and prolonged feeling of despair.
• Common collocations include: , , .

Examples

• Noun:
  • The team's losing streak led to a general mood of despondency in the locker room.
  • After months of unsuccessful job searching, she could not shake her feelings of despondency.
  • The economic crisis plunged the nation into despondency.

Advanced Usage

• "To be in the depths of despondency": to be in a state of extreme hopelessness and sadness.
  • After the loss, he was in the depths of despondency for weeks.

Variants and Related Words

• Despondent (adj): feeling or showing profound hopelessness or dejection.
  • He was despondent after receiving the rejection letter.
• Despond (verb, archaic): to become despondent; to lose heart or hope.
  • Do not despond; better times are ahead.

Synonyms

• Dejection: a state of sadness and low spirits.
• Hopelessness: a feeling or state of despair; lack of hope.
• Despair: the complete loss or absence of hope.

Antonyms

• Hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.
• Cheerfulness: the quality or state of being noticeably happy and optimistic.
• Elation: great happiness and exhilaration.

Học thuật

Noun

1. feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless

Từ đồng nghĩa

• despondence
• heartsickness
• disconsolateness