desperation

Compared meaning: a feeling of hopelessness (noun).

比较义项：绝望（名词）。

• despair

  Describes complete hopelessness or despondency, usually passive resignation with no implication of taking action; often follows failure, loss, or grief.

  表示彻底的绝望或沮丧，通常是一种被动接受的情绪，并不暗示会采取任何行动；常出现在遭遇失败、丧失或悲伤之后。

  Despair overwhelmed him as he accepted that his small business would never recover.

  他陷入绝望，接受了自己的小生意再也无法起死回生的事实。

• desperation 本词

  Describes hopelessness combined with an urgent drive to escape it, implying the person is willing to take extreme or risky action; often used in the phrase 'in desperation'.

  表示绝望中夹杂着急于摆脱困境的冲动，暗示当事人愿意采取极端或冒险的行动；常用于“in desperation”这一短语中。

  In sheer desperation, she began knocking on strangers' doors to ask for help.

  在极度绝望之下，她开始挨家挨户敲陌生人的门求助。

Despair and desperation both mean a feeling of hopelessness. Despair describes complete hopelessness, a passive, low feeling with no wish to act, often after failure or loss. Desperation combines hopelessness with an urgent need to escape it, implying the person may take extreme action.

这两个词都表示“绝望”的感受，语义相近但侧重不同：despair 强调彻底丧失希望后的低落、无力感，带有被动接受的意味；desperation 则强调因绝望而产生的紧迫感，暗示当事人愿意不顾一切采取行动摆脱困境。两词在词库中都只涉及这一个义项。