as in hopeless
emphasizing or expecting the worst
your defeatist attitude is depressing everyone else on the team!
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in realist
one who emphasizes bad aspects or conditions and expects the worst
we told her that if she was going to be such a defeatist, she should keep her thoughts to herself
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defeatist
Adjective
-
Those who are convinced they’re trapped stay helpless and hopeless.—
Amy Morin,
CNBC,
12 June 2025 -
In a world where the powerful increasingly act with impunity, taking fictional villains to task makes sense, a form of Hollywood wish fulfillment for those who feel stuck or hopeless.—
Whitney Friedlander,
Los Angeles Times,
11 June 2025
Noun
-
Shahn was known as a social realist: a painter of hardscrabble life who registered every spasm and twitch of the body politic, from the Great Depression to Vietnam.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
24 June 2025
-
Prioritization is a realist strategy, and what keeps realists up at night is the threat of a rival great power controlling an economically vital part of the world.—
JENNIFER LIND,
Foreign Affairs,
24 June 2025
Adjective
-
Too often, leaders are stuck between moral maximalism and cynical cost-cutting.—
HEC Paris Insights,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2025
-
Mamdani proposes to pay for these splendid gifts to the city’s voters by raising taxes even further on the city’s top income earners, in the cynical belief that those who make up his tax base are stuck there, cannot flee, and are thus cows to be helplessly milked.—
The Editors,
National Review,
25 June 2025
Noun
-
However, cynics have long predicted that AVs will flounder among the flocks of cyclists in European cities such as Amsterdam.—
Carlton Reid,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2025
-
Instead, cynics might argue, the exercise was about proving to the White House that Putin was not interested in the peace, or indeed the specific ceasefire proposal, that the Trump administration sought.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
12 May 2025
Adjective
-
Just 19 per cent are optimistic about the wider UK economy over the next year, versus 63 per cent who are pessimistic – even though 69 per cent remain upbeat about their own firms.—
Philip Salter,
Forbes.com,
2 July 2025
-
Veteran workers, in contrast, are more pessimistic about the tools and the impact of AI on their jobs, according to surveys.—
John Kell,
Fortune,
2 July 2025
Noun
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But that doesn’t stop a chorus of pessimists from emerging amid periods of market volatility.—
Luke Andriuk,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2025
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In contrast, pessimists often miss opportunities by holding cash.—
Michael Khouw,
CNBC,
14 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Defeatist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatist. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
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