unhopeful

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ʌnˈhoʊpfəl/ UK /ʌnˈhəʊpfəl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
feeling or offering no hope; pessimistic

The doctor's unhopeful tone alarmed the family.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · feeling or offering no... pessimistic despairing hopeless discouraging gloomy despondent

Opposites

hopeful optimistic encouraging sanguine

Word family

Derived forms unhopefullyunhopefulness

Related forms hope hopeful hopeless

Etymology

From un- ('not') + hopeful, from hope (Old English hopa) + -ful.

un- Old English hopa Old English *hupô Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# unhopeful

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ʌnˈhoʊpfəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ʌnˈhəʊpfəl/

## Meanings
1. feeling or offering no hope; pessimistic

## Examples
- The doctor's unhopeful tone alarmed the family.

## Synonyms
- pessimistic
- despairing
- hopeless
- discouraging
- gloomy
- despondent

## Antonyms
- hopeful
- optimistic
- encouraging
- sanguine

## Derived Forms
- unhopefully
- unhopefulness

## Related Forms
- hope
- hopeful
- hopeless

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: un-
- Root: hopa
- Root: *hupô

## Etymology
From un- ('not') + hopeful, from hope (Old English hopa) + -ful.

## AI Etymology
Unhopeful comes from un- ('not') + hopeful, from hope (Old English hopa) + -ful. The historical chain includes Old English un-, Old English hopa, and Proto-Germanic *hupô. The quoted older sense, "not," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for unhopeful. The formation is best read as suffixal, compound, and borrowed: the word unhopeful carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "feeling or offering no hope; pessimistic". English derivatives include unhopefully and unhopefulness; related English forms include hope, hopeful, and hopeless. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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