What does desperate mean?
Word: Desperate
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Desperate means feeling that there is almost no hope left, so you are ready to try anything; also needing or wanting something very badly.
Synonyms: hopeless, frantic, urgent
Antonyms: calm
How do you spell desperate?
Syllables: des - per - ate
Tricky part: The middle is per, not par, and many students write desparate. The word ends in ate, even though we hardly hear the a.
Watch out for: desparate, desprate, desperat
Memory tip: A desperate dog once ate a whole pie off the table: the word ends in ate. For the middle, think of per, as in ten pounds per kilo.
Desperate in a sentence
Example 1: After three weeks without rain, the farmers were desperate for the monsoon.
Example 2: The puppy was desperate to get out of the locked room and kept scratching the door.
Example 3: In a desperate last attempt, Kabir kicked the ball from the halfway line.
Fun Fact
Desperate comes from the Latin desperare, to lose hope, made from de (without) and sperare (to hope).
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) definate
b) temprature
c) seperate
d) desperate
Show answer
d) desperate. Desperate has per in the middle; seperate, temprature and definate each have a wrong or missing vowel.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word: desperate
a) anxious
b) fearful
c) hopeful
d) reckless
Show answer
c) hopeful. A hopeful person expects things to turn out well, which is the opposite of feeling desperate.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
pteeradse
a) desperate
b) dehydrate
c) decorate
d) desolate
Show answer
a) desperate. Count the e's: there are three, and decorate, dehydrate and desolate have only two each.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
dessperate
a) a
b) p
c) s
d) e
Show answer
c) s. Desperate has a single s, between the first e and the p.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A desperate cry for help comes from someone who ____.
a) is practising for a play
b) is in real trouble
c) is playing a prank
d) wants to sound clever
Show answer
b) is in real trouble
2. Who has the best reason to feel desperate?
a) a hiker taking photos of the hills
b) a lost hiker whose water has run out
c) a hiker packing extra snacks
d) a hiker resting at a sunny campsite
Show answer
b) a lost hiker whose water has run out
