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Desperate vs Pessimistic - What's the difference?

desperate | pessimistic |

As adjectives the difference between desperate and pessimistic

is that desperate is being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless while pessimistic is marked by pessimism and little hopefulness; expecting the worst.

desperate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”}}
  • Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
  • * Macaulay
    • desperate expedients
  • Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
  • Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • a desperate offendress against nature
  • * Macaulay
    • the most desperate of reprobates
  • Extremely intense.

    • Derived terms

    * desperation

    Related terms

    * despair * desperado

    Anagrams

    * ----

    pessimistic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Marked by pessimism and little hopefulness; expecting the worst.
    • a pessimistic view of the future
  • Pertaining to the worst-case scenario.
    • a pessimistic estimate

    Antonyms

    * optimistic

    Related terms

    * pessimal * pessimism * pessimist