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If you are despondent, you are extremely unhappy and you have almost given up hope. This is stronger than sad, and heavier than disappointed: the feeling is that nothing you do will help, so your heart sinks and you stop trying.
If you are despondent如果你despondent，you are extremely unhappy and you have almost given up hope你會非常不開心，而且幾乎放棄了希望。This is stronger than sad, and heavier than disappointed這比sad（難過）更強烈，也比disappointed（失望）更沉重：the feeling is that nothing you do will help那種感覺是不管你做什麼都沒用，so your heart sinks and you stop trying所以心會往下沉，然後你就不再努力了。
People become despondent after a long stretch of bad news — failing again and again, losing a job, a long illness, a plan that keeps falling apart. You can be despondent about one thing (your exam, your team, the future) or in a despondent mood more generally.
People become despondent after a long stretch of bad news人們在經歷一長串壞消息之後會變得despondent——failing again and again一次又一次失敗、losing a job失業、a long illness長期生病、a plan that keeps falling apart計畫一直失敗。You can be despondent about one thing你可以針對某件事despondent（你的考試、你支持的隊伍、未來），or in a despondent mood more generally也可以是整體上處於despondent的心情。
It is a rather formal, written word. In everyday talk, especially among younger people, you are more likely to hear so sad, so down, or I've given up; despondent turns up in stories, news, and careful speech.
It is a rather formal, written word這是個相當正式、書面的字。In everyday talk在日常對話裡，especially among younger people尤其是年輕人之間，you are more likely to hear so sad, so down, or I've given up比較常聽到的是so sad、so down，或I've given up；despondent turns up in stories, news, and careful speechdespondent則出現在故事、新聞和講究的說話場合裡。
It describes a feeling, not a loud action: a despondent person may sit quietly, speak softly, or just look worn out.
It describes a feeling, not a loud action它描述的是一種感覺，不是誇張的動作：a despondent person may sit quietly, speak softly, or just look worn outdespondent的人可能只是安靜地坐著、輕聲說話，或看起來一臉疲憊。
組成Does not split in a way English learners can see. From Latin dēspondēns, from the verb despondere, “to give up, to abandon” — so the picture inside the word is someone who has given up.
同家族的字
- despondencythe noun: the heavy, hopeless feeling itself
- despondentlythe adverb: in a despondent way
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
despondentadj/dɪˈspɒndənt/
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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.
- “Last year, I was despondent that it was so hard to dislodge the iron grip of Google,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, who previously oversaw advertising for Google, including Search ads, and now runs Neeva. “But technological moments like this create an opportunity for more competition.”
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。