# desperately

Pronunciation: US say "DES-pruht-lee" /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹətli/; UK

## Adverb

1. To an extreme degree; very greatly, often with a sense of urgency or strong feeling.
   - Simple: Very much, or to a very high degree.
   - _The remote village was desperately short of clean drinking water._
   - _He desperately needed the loan to keep his small business open._
2. In the reckless way of someone driven by desperation, with no thought for danger or personal safety.
   - Simple: In a way that ignores danger, often because you feel there is no other choice.
   - _The cornered soldiers fought desperately to break through the enemy line._
   - _She drove desperately through the flooded streets to reach the hospital in time._

## Origin

Formed from "desperate" with the suffix "-ly".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/desperately (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).