What does hopeless mean?
Word: Hopeless
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Hopeless means without any hope of getting better or succeeding; also used to say someone is very bad at something.
Synonyms: desperate, useless
How do you spell hopeless?
Syllables: hope - less
Tricky part: The e of hope stays when the ending is added, and the ending itself has a double s.
Watch out for: hoapless, hopliss, hopelees
Memory tip: A hopeless case has no hope left in it, so keep the whole of hope, e and all, at the front.
Hopeless in a sentence
Example 1: The team was four goals behind, but the coach said it was not hopeless.
Example 2: I am hopeless at drawing horses; mine always look like dogs.
Example 3: The lost traveller felt hopeless until he saw a light in the distance.
Fun Fact
The ending less comes from the Old English word leas, which meant free from or without, so careless, fearless and hopeless all share the same idea.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) spotles
b) fearlass
c) usless
d) hopeless
Show answer
d) hopeless. Fearless, useless and spotless each slip on one letter, so hopeless is right.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
hopeless
a) sorrowful
b) hopeful
c) gloomy
d) helpless
Show answer
b) hopeful. Hopeful means full of hope, so it sits at the other end from hopeless.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
After two missed buses, Ben felt hopeless about reaching scool on time.
a) buses
b) hopeless
c) scool
d) missed
Show answer
c) scool. School has an h after the c.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
seolphse
a) hopeless
b) helpless
c) homeless
d) sleepless
Show answer
a) hopeless. Homeless needs an m, and helpless and sleepless need two l's; with one l and a p, the letters spell hopeless.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these could make a whole team feel hopeless?
a) drawing a match on a rainy day
b) missing one practice session
c) losing the first match of the season
d) losing every match all season
Show answer
d) losing every match all season
2. In which word does less mean without, as it does in hopeless?
a) lessons
b) lessen
c) unless
d) endless
Show answer
d) endless
