desperately

English

Etymology

desperate +‎ -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹətli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: des‧per‧ate‧ly

Adverb

desperately (comparative more desperately, superlative most desperately)

1. In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.

   She desperately grabbed at the nearby branches as she heard the branch she was standing on start to snap.

   I could desperately do with some coffee right now.

2. extremely

   The race for silver medal was desperately close, they needed a photo finish to separate the runners.

Collocations

Some verbs commonly collocating with desperately

• desperately need something need something desperately
• try desperately desperately try
• seek desperately desperately seek
• could desperately do with

Translations

in a desperate manner

• Catalan: desesperadament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拼命地 (zh) (pīnmìng de), 死命地 (zh) (sǐmìng de)

• Czech: zoufale (cs)
• Danish: desperat, fortvivlet
• Dutch: wanhopig (nl)
• Finnish: epätoivoisesti (fi)
• French: désespérément (fr)
• Galician: desesperadamente
• German: verzweifelt (de)
• Hebrew: נואשות (he) (noashot)
• Japanese: 必死になって (ja) (ひっしになって, hisshi ni natte)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: desperat

  Nynorsk: desperat

• Portuguese: desesperadamente (pt)
• Russian: отча́янно (ru) (otčájanno)
• Spanish: desesperadamente