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Despondency vs Discourage - What's the difference?

despondency | discourage |

As nouns the difference between despondency and discourage

is that despondency is the loss of hope or confidence; despair or dejection while discourage is lack of courage.

As a verb discourage is

to extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.

despondency

English

Noun

(despondencies)
  • The loss of hope or confidence; despair or dejection.
  • A feeling of depression or disheartenment.
  • discourage

    English

    Verb

    (discourag)
  • To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.
  • Don't be discouraged by the amount of work left to do: you'll finish it in good time.
  • * Bible, Col. iii. 21
  • Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged .
  • To persuade somebody not to do something.
  • * Abraham Lincoln
  • Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.

    Antonyms

    * encourage

    See also

    * deter * dissuade

    Noun

    (-)
  • Lack of courage
  • Synonyms

    * (lack of courage) cowardliness