désespérer
French, verb/de.zɛs.pe.ʁe/
désespérer is spelled D-É-S-E-S-P-É-R-E-R (10 letters) and appears 1.2 times per million words in written French, the 28,091st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Désespérer is a French verb meaning “to despair (feel hopeless)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Perdre l’espoir de quelque chose”.
What does désespérer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to despair (feel hopeless)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Perdre l’espoir de quelque chose. 2. Ne plus espérer une amélioration, un amendement, une bonne fin, en parlant d'une personne. 3. Mettre, pousser au désespoir. 4. Se tourmenter, s’agiter avec de grandes démonstrations de douleur, d’affliction.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of désespérer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- désespérant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- désespéré participle past
- désespère first-person indicative present
- désespères indicative present second-person
- désespérons first-person indicative plural
- désespérez indicative plural present
- désespèrent indicative plural present
- désespérais first-person imperfect indicative
- désespérait imperfect indicative singular
- désespérions first-person imperfect indicative
- désespériez imperfect indicative plural
- désespéraient imperfect indicative plural
- désespérai first-person historic indicative
- désespéras historic indicative past
- désespéra historic indicative past
- désespérâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce désespérer?
- /de.zɛs.pe.ʁe/
- \de.zɛs.pe.ʁe\
- [de.zɛs.pe.ʁe]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to désespérer
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is désespérer in French?
désespérer appears 1.2 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).