Desperate
Desperate adjective - Feeling or showing no hope.
Usage example: desperate cancer patients who are vulnerable to the claims of unscrupulous quacks
Optimistic is an antonym for desperate.
Nearby Words: desperately, desperation
Optimistic
Optimistic adjective - Having qualities which inspire hope.
Usage example: the economic predictions for the coming year are actually quite optimistic
Desperate is an antonym for optimistic.
Both words in one sentence
- While he wasn't exactly optimistic in Attack of the Clones, he kept having horrible visions that his wife will die and was desperate to save her.
Source: Never Live It Down / Film - Part of the reason it's so memorable is that the tone of it shifts back and forth from happy to delirious to optimistic to desperate.
Source: Final Speech - It skirts pretty close to black comedy genre, without getting too desperate - if anything it's simply funny, without being too optimistic about the world.This series provides examples of: Action Girl: Veronica Drysdale who start with murder of her husband, and carries on from there.
Cite this Source
Optimistic and Desperate. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 13, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/desperate/optimistic
Desperate & Optimistic. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/desperate/optimistic>.
Optimistic or Desperate. 2016. Accessed August 13, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/desperate/optimistic.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "desperate" and "optimistic" have occurred on timeline