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The word abject emphasizes a very bad situation or quality, thereby making it even worse.
Apathy is a lack of interest or unenthusiastic involvement in an activity; there is no effort to change or improve it at all.
A bereaved person is someone whose close friend or relative has recently died.
The adjective blithe indicates that someone does something casually or in a carefree fashion without much concern for the end result; as a result, they are happy and lighthearted.
Someone in a buoyant mood is in good spirits.
A convivial atmosphere or occasion is friendly, pleasant, cheerful, and relaxed.
Someone who is crestfallen is severely disappointed, sad, or depressed.
If you are disconsolate, you are very unhappy or so sad that nothing will make you feel better.
Someone who is ebullient is filled with enthusiasm, very happy, and extremely excited about something.
When you are ecstatic about something, you are overjoyed or extremely happy about it.
An effervescent individual is lively, very happy, and enthusiastic.
When you become elated about something, you become very happy, overjoyed, or extremely delighted.
A state of euphoria is one of extreme happiness or overwhelming joy.
If you exult, you show great pleasure and excitement, especially about something you have achieved.
When you have a feeling of gratification, you experience satisfaction or pleasure about a job well done.
Someone who is inconsolable has been so devastated by a terrible event that no one can help them feel better about it.
Someone who is jovial is in a good humor, lighthearted, and jolly.
When you are feeling jubilant, you are very happy or highly joyful about something.
If someone is lugubrious, they are looking very sad or gloomy.
Malaise is a feeling of discontent, general unease, or even illness in a person or group for which there does not seem to be a quick and easy solution because the cause of it is not clear.
If you are melancholy, you look and feel sad.
A person’s morale is their current state of self-confidence, how they feel emotionally, and how motivated they are to complete tasks.
Someone who is morose is unhappy, bad-tempered, and unwilling to talk very much.
A plaintive sound or voice expresses sadness.
Plangent sounds are loud and tend to suggest sadness.
A poignant experience affects your feelings greatly in a painful or deeply emotional way, often causing sadness or pity.
If you are sanguine about a situation, especially a difficult one, you are confident and cheerful that everything will work out the way you want it to.
Someone who is saturnine is looking miserable and sad, sometimes in a threatening or unfriendly way.
Someone who is woebegone is very sad and filled with grief.
Adj.
despondent
di-SPON-duhnt
Context
As Anna read aloud from a serious book of verse to her aunt, her expression remained sad and despondent. Anna was stuck reading to her moody old relative for hours while her sisters went on a picnic outdoors—being left behind made Anna feel gloomy and despondent. In her unhappy despair and despondency, Anna read more and more slowly, until her voice broke and miserable tears streamed down her face.
Quiz:Try again!
When might someone feel despondent?
They have tried to find a job for months and feel hopeless.
They are given a challenging job to finish by the end of the day.
They feel bored at their current job and hope to find a new one.
Sent to a Deep Pond She felt so despondent when her beloved died that she felt that her entire mind was sent into a deep pond of despair from which it seemingly would never return.
Examples
"Baseball was all we had left," says José Manuel Benitez, a despondent fan staring up at the locked stadium in the center of the city.
—
The Christian Science Monitor
In the past year, Sheron Patterson, senior pastor at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, has grieved the loss of way too many church members to the virus. That heartbreak, coupled with racial unrest, had left her despondent, depressed and, she says, “beaten down.”
—
The Dallas Morning News
His record deal and publishing contract vanished in an instant. He collapsed into depression, despondent not only about his flatlining career but also his inability to help support his family, especially while expecting their first child.
—
NPR
"[English football players are] becoming despondent, disillusioned, because there's so much uncertainty over their future. . . . "They were told they'd still have a chance to prove themselves, but now they've been told they've not got a future at the club. It's heartbreaking for them and they don't know what to do next.
—
BBC Sport
When you break “from a pledge or promise” you have made to yourself, you can become despondent, that is, “discouraged” or “depressed”; in a like vein, you can also become “depressed” if someone breaks “from a pledge or promise” to you.
Word Theater
Blue Peter Marvin is one despondent robot.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
Word Constellation
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Related Words
abject ·
apathy ·
bereaved ·
crestfallen+ ·
disconsolate+ ·
inconsolable+ ·
lugubrious ·
malaise ·
melancholy ·
morose ·
plaintive ·
plangent ·
poignant ·
saturnine ·
woebegone ·
blithe ·
buoyant ·
convivial ·
ebullient ·
ecstatic+ ·
effervescent ·
elated+ ·
euphoria+ ·
exult ·
gratification+ ·
jovial+ ·
jubilant+ ·
morale+ ·
sanguine ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
despondency
n
→
depression; discouragement
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.
