desperate — feeling or showing extreme urgency or intensity
Part of speech: ADJECTIVE
Definition: feeling or showing extreme urgency or intensity
Pronunciation (IPA): /ˈdespərət/
Example Sentences
- I'm desperate for coffee - I haven't slept in 30 hours!
- The students made desperate attempts to finish their assignments before the deadline.
- My mom was so desperate to wake me up that she played K-pop at full volume.
desperate
ADJECTIVE[/ˈdespərət/]
feeling or showing extreme urgency or intensity

He wasn't careless — he was desperate, and desperation makes people do things they never imagined.

At the DESK, PER night, he ATE nothing — desperate to finish before the deadline.

Desperate enough to separate — just to generate something new.
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🎤Pronunciation
🌳Etymology
Origin
From Latin desperatus, the past participle of desperare, meaning 'to lose all hope.' The word combines de- (completely) and sperare (to hope), originally describing a state of utter hopelessness or a situation from which there is no escape.
Breakdown
de- (completely, utterly) + sperare (to hope) → desperatus (hopeless, despairing). The suffix -ate forms the English adjective, denoting a condition of complete loss of hope.
🎵Rhyme
🔗Collocations
📝Examples
“I'm desperate for coffee - I haven't slept in 30 hours!”
“The students made desperate attempts to finish their assignments before the deadline.”
“My mom was so desperate to wake me up that she played K-pop at full volume.”
“The company is in desperate need of new investors.”
📚Related Words
Synonyms
Antonyms
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