despite

³de·spite

prep \di-ˈspīt\

Definition of DESPITE

: in spite of <played despite an injury>

Examples of DESPITE

1. <we went to the party despite the bad weather outside>
2. Many children are shy around strangers, of course, but Jacob's reticence is different. He suffers from a rare childhood disorder … that renders him so anxious in the company of others that he cannot, despite all his efforts, utter a single word. —Kathy Ehrich Dowd et al., People, 18 Feb. 2008
3. That's exactly what researchers at Texas A & M University have done with Smart Little Lena, a stallion (despite the name) famed for its cow herding skills. —Henry Nicholls, New Scientist, 1-7 Apr. 2006
4. Despite the thriving trade in manuscripts that occurred throughout the Greek and Roman empires, many plays, poems, and philosophical musings by writers such as Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been lost. —Physics Today, June 2005

Origin of DESPITE

(see ¹despite)

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to DESPITE

Synonyms: notwithstanding, regardless of, with, in defiance of, in despite of, in spite of