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Desire vs Hope - What's the difference?

desire | hope |

In countable terms the difference between desire and hope

is that desire is someone or something wished for while hope is a person or thing that is a source of hope.

In uncountable terms the difference between desire and hope

is that desire is the feeling of desire while hope is the belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.

As a proper noun Hope is

{{given name|female|from=English}} from the virtue, like Faith and Charity first used by Puritans.

desire

English

Verb

(desir)
  • To want; to wish for earnestly.
  • * Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24
  • Neither shall any man desire thy land.
  • * Tennyson
  • Ye desire your child to live.
  • To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XIII:
  • And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
  • *
  • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired .}}
  • To want emotionally or sexually.
  • To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28
  • Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?
  • * Shakespeare
  • Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.
  • To require; to demand; to claim.
  • * Spenser
  • A doleful case desires a doleful song.
  • To miss; to regret.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (countable) Someone or something wished for.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
  • (uncountable) Motivation.
  • (uncountable) The feeling of desire.
  • Synonyms

    * (one or thing wished for) wanna, want-to * (motivation) wanna, want-to

    See also

    * velleity

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs

    hope

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) hope, from (etyl) .

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out.}}
  • (countable) The actual thing wished for.
  • (countable) A person or thing that is a source of hope.
  • (Christianity) The virtuous desire for future good.
  • * The Holy Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:13
  • But now abideth faith, hope , love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
    Derived terms
    * Cape of Good Hope * forlorn hope * great white hope * have one's hope dashed * hope against hope * hope chest * hopeful * hopeless * hoper * hope springs eternal * no-hoper * out of hope * overhope * unhope * wanhope

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) hopen, from (etyl) hopian.

    Verb

    (hop)
  • To want something to happen, with a sense of expectation that it might.
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.}}
  • To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
  • (obsolete) To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; usually followed by in .
  • * Bible, Psalms cxix. 81
  • I hope in thy word.
  • * Bible, Psalms xlii. 11
  • Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God.
    Usage notes
    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See
    Derived terms
    * hoped for
    See also
    * aspire * desire * expect * look forward * want

    Etymology 3

    Compare Icelandic word for a small bay or inlet.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sloping plain between mountain ridges.
  • (Scotland) A small bay; an inlet; a haven.
  • (Jamieson)
    (Webster 1913)