different between despondent vs apathetic

English

Etymology

From Latin despondere (“to give up, to abandon”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sp?nd?nt/

Adjective

despondent (comparative more despondent, superlative most despondent)

1. In low spirits from loss of hope or courage.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sad

   • 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.

Derived terms

• despondency

Synonyms

• crestfallen
• despairing
• disconsolate
• disheartened
• dejected
• downcast
• gloomy
• heartsick
• hopeless
• miserable
• sad

Antonyms

• cheerful
• hopeful

Translations

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /de?s?pon.dent/, [d?e?s??p?n?d??n?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /des?pon.dent/, [d??s?p?n?d??n?t?]

Verb

d?spondent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of d?sponde?

English

Alternative forms

• apathetical

Etymology

apathy +? -etic

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /æp.????t.?k/
• Rhymes: -?t?k

Adjective

apathetic (comparative more apathetic, superlative most apathetic)

1. Void of feeling; not susceptible of deep emotion

   Synonyms: passionless, indifferent

2. Of, or pertaining to apatheism.

Synonyms

• incurious, indifferent, impassive
• See also: Thesaurus:calm

Related terms

• apatheism
• apatheist

Translations

References

• apathetic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.