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Wistful vs Despondent - What's the difference?

wistful | despondent |

As adjectives the difference between wistful and despondent

is that wistful is full of yearning or longing while despondent is in low spirits from loss of hope or courage.

wistful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • full of yearning or longing
    • His eyes grew wistful as he recalled his university days.
  • sad and thoughtful

    • Synonyms

    * (thoughtful sadness) (l)

    References

    despondent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • In low spirits from loss of hope or courage.
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent , miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

    • Synonyms

    * despairing * disconsolate * disheartened * dejected * downcast * gloomy * miserable * sad

    Antonyms

    * cheerful * hopeful