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
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In a time when the suffering and seemingly hopeless prospects of America’s poor are known to all who have eyes to see, the only fig leaf available to hide the obscenity of this bill is the old partisan charge of waste, fraud and abuse.—
Clarence Page,
Chicago Tribune,
6 July 2025 -
Valentine, Texas, stamps 10,000+ love letters each year For more than three decades, the small-town Valentine Post Office — also known as the Love Station — has processed thousands of love letters from hopeless romantics around the world.—
Brandi D. Addison,
Austin American Statesman,
2 July 2025
Noun
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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
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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
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The cynical view would be that Trump is looking for a reason to have federal troops join ICE in rounding up undocumented immigrants that Mamdani tries to protect, and to arrest local officials who get in their way.—
Anna Commander,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 July 2025
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There is a certain business logic to that; from a cynical perspective, if a £10million investment fails to live up to expectations, the financial downside for the buying club is relatively small — and in many cases, he will be sold to somewhere lower down the sport’s food chain.—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
8 July 2025
Noun
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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
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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
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Tennesseans are generally, and understandably, pessimistic.—
Andrea Williams,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
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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 18 Jul. 2025.
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