DESPERATENESS Synonyms: 80 Similar and Opposite Words

desperateness

noun

Definition of desperateness

as in desperation

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for desperateness

Noun

Hearings, trials, interviews—these are the contexts from which audience derives, and the word retains echoes of desperation.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2026
Pettersson’s desperation check worked, as Greer spilled the puck into the high slot, where Lekkerimäki was waiting.

— Thomas Drance, New York Times, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of desperation

Noun

In the 1980s Americans became gripped with satanic panic, the fear that Satan worshippers were committing heinous crimes against children.

— Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Oct. 2026
Thankfully, these moments of panic are now relatively short-lived.

— Cellene Hoogenkamp, Forbes.com, 30 Oct. 2026

Definition of panic

Noun

In a masterful unbroken shot, Klaus is on the phone from France with his sister, expressing his bottomless anguish.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
Polly, by contrast, reads the manuscript and is immediately filled with anguish and all-consuming fury.

— Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of anguish

Noun

The rise of self-harm influencers—people for whom demonstrating their distress online has become a source of income and validation—is a terrifying new development.

— Gavin Francis, The New York Review of Books, 24 Oct. 2026
CoreWeave, the leader of the pack, has seen spreads on its CDS widen past 11%, generally viewed as a distress level, as investors have to pay up for protection against default.

— Isabel O'Brien, CNBC, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of distress

Noun

Fortune recently reported on wealthy parents’ growing fear that their fortunes will sap their children’s drive.

— Molly A. Wallace, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2026
Coupled with job-displacement fears from AI, opponents now point to the facilities as a physical symbol of who benefits from the boom and who gets stuck with the bill.

— Luke Fountain, CNBC, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of fear

Noun

Stewart concluded by joking that his final act of objetophilia had taken place in the very theater where the gala was being held, much to the audience’s dismay and amusement.

— Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2026
Corporate America, unions, Republicans, and Democrats rallied against the policy for years and postponed its enactment, to the dismay of economists.

— Bob Herman, STAT, 29 Oct. 2026

Definition of dismay

Noun

Research has also found that across generational groups, greater user tendency to engage in social comparison, together with greater maladaptive ways of coping with emotions, is associated with more symptoms of anger, anxiety, and depression.

— Ashwini Nadkarni, Time, 24 Oct. 2026
The market for profiting off male body anxiety is nothing new.

— Gavin Francis, The New York Review of Books, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of anxiety

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desperateness

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“Desperateness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desperateness. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of desperateness

noun

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