Desperately

How to spell desperately

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce desperately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does desperately mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows extreme urgency, hopelessness, or intense need.

Desperately in a sentence

• The stranded hikers desperately needed fresh water before nightfall.

• She wanted the promotion so desperately that she rehearsed for hours.

Where does desperately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb desperare, which meant 'to lose hope' or 'to give up'. It was built from the prefix de-, here carrying the sense of 'without' or 'away from', joined to sperare, meaning 'to hope', which itself came from the noun spes, 'hope'. The past participle desperatus described someone left utterly hopeless, and this passed through Old French into English in the fifteenth century as 'desperate', the adverb 'desperately' following soon after. The same Latin spes lies behind the cheerful word 'prosper', literally 'to fare according to one's hope', which makes 'desperately' its gloomy cousin. A useful spelling clue is that the middle of the word hides 'sper', the hope-root, not the word 'desparate' that many writers wrongly produce: there is no 'a' there, only the hope you have lost.

How the word is built

• de- (without, away from)
• sper (from sperare: to hope)
• -ate (adjective ending)
• -ly (adverb suffix)