as in hopeless
emphasizing or expecting the worst
your defeatist attitude is depressing everyone else on the team!
Synonyms & Similar Words
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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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Measures included depression using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D), blood tests for 76 inflammatory biomarkers, and symptoms broken down into cognitive-affective (e.g., feeling hopeless), somatic (e.g., poor sleep, fatigue), and anhedonia (loss of pleasure) clusters.—
Paul McClure
August 09,
New Atlas,
9 Aug. 2025 -
Amid the callous acts and hopeless rage of these kids—who are resourceful enough to orchestrate a high-speed heist but too disaffected for much else—a supernatural eeriness surfaces through word of mysterious lights in the sky and missing citizens.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
7 Aug. 2025
Noun
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While optimistic about the future, Wilson is also a realist.—
Matthew Adams,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
16 June 2025
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Like his fellow realist John Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, Haslam identifies NATO’s expansion eastward as a wound to Russia’s pride.—
Samuel Moyn,
Harpers Magazine,
16 July 2025
Adjective
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Home games were a communally happy experience instead of one in which 40,000 people were conditioned to expect the most cynical outcome possible.—
Jerry Beach,
Forbes.com,
12 Aug. 2025
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That was a shameful, cynical act of political cowardice and corruption.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
12 Aug. 2025
Noun
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But crypto companies have long maintained that digital currencies are a new, innovative financial product that needs its own set of rules — rules that critics and cynics say the crypto sector would like to shape to its advantage by spending heavily in elections.—
Rafael Nam,
NPR,
19 July 2025
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Gunn and Safran and all of Warner Bros can rest easy after the cynics’ snarking over the first trailer back in December.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
10 July 2025
Adjective
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Our Keith Law was one of the more pessimistic graders on De Vries in the most recent batch of prospect rankings — and Keith put him at No. 13 in the sport.—
Andy McCullough,
New York Times,
31 July 2025
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Meanwhile, broader public sentiment about the country's direction has also become more pessimistic.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 July 2025
Noun
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Optimists showed greater differences in neural patterns when thinking of positive events versus negative events, compared to pessimists.—
Margherita Bassi,
Smithsonian Magazine,
24 July 2025
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The researchers also found that optimistic people showed bigger differences between brain patterns for emotionally positive and negative events than pessimists did.—
Allison Parshall,
Scientific American,
21 July 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Defeatist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatist. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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