as in hopeless
emphasizing or expecting the worst
your defeatist attitude is depressing everyone else on the team!
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in realist
one who emphasizes bad aspects or conditions and expects the worst
we told her that if she was going to be such a defeatist, she should keep her thoughts to herself
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defeatist
Adjective
-
Mimi seesaws between hopeless heroin addict and righteous truth-teller.—
Jeffrey Seller,
Vulture,
11 Apr. 2025 -
Previewing the playoffs with a playoff team draft Finding 3 positive thoughts for each of the NHL’s 15 most hopeless teams 16 stats: Blues’ turnaround, Lane Hutson’s stardom and Stars’ struggles Comments D Dan N. · 4h 17m ago Helle is thee best.—
Scott Powers,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The highest draft choice possible is what the realists are hoping for, which would mean losing games down the stretch.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
18 Mar. 2025
-
The new wave of realists and idealists now sit united in opposition to the current occupants of the White House.—
Neil MacFarquhar,
New York Times,
26 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Beyond that, Acheampong’s rapid rise and equally precipitous fall in the first two weeks of January lent itself to the more cynical notion that Maresca might have wanted to send a message to Chelsea about the need for defensive reinforcements in the winter market.—
Liam Twomey,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
-
Perhaps most perplexing about Smash, though, is its weirdly cynical, ungenerous take on the Bombshell herself.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
10 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
In fact, cynics do worse on cognitive tests and have a harder time spotting liars than non-cynics.—
Jamil Zaki,
TIME,
3 Sep. 2024
-
And yes, there are plenty of options for V-Day cynics, including He's Just Not That Into You and a particularly bloody '80s slasher flick.—
Glamour,
Glamour,
7 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
What causes bear markets? Bear markets tend to happen when investors are feeling particularly pessimistic about the future of the economy.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
7 Apr. 2025
-
Even the most Maga-loving people in my world are getting a bit pessimistic.—
David Rae,
Forbes.com,
7 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
In another survey, optimists were 40% more likely to get promoted over the next year, six times more likely to be highly engaged at work and five times less likely to burn out than pessimists.—
Caroline Castrillon,
Forbes.com,
6 Apr. 2025
-
The power basketball conferences have dominated, and because power means football, and football means money, specifically more NIL money to use as tokens for players to use the NCAA transfer portal, pessimists see the mid-majors such as San Diego State on life support.—
Nick Canepa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
5 Apr. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Defeatist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatist. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share