HOPELESS definition: providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate. See examples of hopeless used in a sentence.

hopeless suggests despair and the cessation of effort or resistance and often implies acceptance or resignation.

If you feel hopeless, you feel very unhappy because there seems to be no possibility of a better situation or success. He had not heard her cry before in this uncontrolled, hopeless way.

Recommended for you

Hopeless, despairing, despondent, desperate all describe an absence of hope. Hopeless is used of a feeling of futility and passive abandonment of oneself to fate: Hopeless and grim, he still clung to the …

They searched for survivors but it was hopeless. She was depressed and felt totally hopeless about the future.

Definition of hopeless adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

You may also like