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
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Feeling hopeless in her quest to stop Crawford and help Delia get her life back, Elsbeth confronts the boastful judge, who is riding high on his rising star and his triumph over her.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
25 Apr. 2025 -
Chelsea Smith thought that celebrities, feeling empty and hopeless even with all their success, could benefit from the Gospel.—
Martha Ross,
Mercury News,
24 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Yet, as a realist, someone can’t help but notice the shift in tone and control.—
Max (Chong) Li,
Forbes.com,
15 Apr. 2025
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Her newer work is filled with references to the American realist — shadows stretch across faces, light filters through blinds and voyeuristically peeks into homes.—
Leah Asmelash,
CNN,
26 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Lee’s cynical cardsharp of a brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi), was meant to be part of that dream move, but the call of gambling takes Julius to Las Vegas instead.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Apr. 2025
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Now, posters are more cynical and there’s a fatalist bent to the conversations that wasn’t there before.—
Fortesa Latifi,
Rolling Stone,
22 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Those cynics contend the front office might as well spend that money on other position groups.—
Tim Graham,
New York Times,
12 Apr. 2025
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In fact, cynics do worse on cognitive tests and have a harder time spotting liars than non-cynics.—
Jamil Zaki,
TIME,
3 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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Both predictions are more pessimistic than the fund’s January projections, which came before Trump’s flurry of tariff announcements took America’s average import tax to its highest level in a century.—
Olesya Dmitracova,
CNN Money,
22 Apr. 2025
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This marks the most pessimistic attitude on jobs that Gallup has recorded since January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.—
Kate Plummer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Apr. 2025
Noun
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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
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Major Intermediate Buy Signal Still Intact The AAII Bull-Bear Spread residing at minus 40.1 continues to reflect a percentage of pessimists trouncing the optimists by a factor of 3, with recent readings some of the most Bearish in history, given that Main Street is usually Bullish.—
John Buckingham,
Forbes,
17 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Defeatist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeatist. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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