wanhope
/ˈwɒnhəʊp/
"wanhope" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wanhope” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - Lack of hope; hopelessness; despair.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wanhope · wanhope · English
wanhope · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" 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 | wanhope |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɒnhəʊp/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “wanhope” in English
Rare enough to double-check
wanhope is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈwɒnhəʊp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for wanhope in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wanhope, equivalent to wan- + hope. Cognate with Scots wanhop, wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), West Frisian wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), Dutch wanhoop (“despair”). The correct English form is wanhope, spelled W-A-N-H-O-P-E.
Definition
- 1Lack of hope; hopelessness; despair.
- 2Vain hope; overconfidence; delusion.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wanhope appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Wanhope: a fine English word, suggesting unhope of Langland's story of the cats and the mice, and described in Ipotis,[…]
If[…]such good old English words as inwit and wanhope should be rehabilitated (and they have been pushing up their heads for thirty years), we should gain a great deal. (Collected essays, 1928, III.68)
Etymology
From Middle English wanhope, equivalent to wan- + hope. Cognate with Scots wanhop, wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), West Frisian wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), Dutch wanhoop (“despair”).
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.