despond
/dɪˈspɒnd/
"despond" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“despond” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.
Corpus desk
Index EN-despond · despond · English
despond · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | despond |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dɪˈspɒnd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “despond” in English
Rare enough to double-check
despond is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /dɪˈspɒnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for despond in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin dēspondeō (“give up, abandon”), from dē (“from”) + spondeō (“promise”). The correct English form is despond, spelled D-E-S-P-O-N-D.
Definition
- 1To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how despond appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Yet still despond not, but proceed Along the path where fate may lead.
October 16, 1820, Thomas Scott, letter to the Rev. G. Knight, Harwell I should despair, or at least despond.
Etymology
From Latin dēspondeō (“give up, abandon”), from dē (“from”) + spondeō (“promise”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.