“Dispair” or “despair”: which is correct?

Why people get it wrong

People often confuse despair with dispair due to the similar pronunciation and the common prefix dis- in English words, leading them to mistakenly spell it with an i instead of an e. The correct prefix in despair is de-, which comes from Latin, meaning away or without, combined with sperare meaning to hope. Therefore, despair means without hope.

Examples with despair

• She was in despair after hearing the bad news.
• There is no need to fall into despair; things will get better.
• He couldn’t hide his deep despair over the situation.