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discouragingly

discouragingly

1 5.6
In a way that makes people lose confidence or interest
  • adverb
  • /dɪsˈkɜrɪdʒɪŋli/
translation icon : desalentadoramente
  • "I don't visualize my cats being very active," Barbara says discouragingly.

Examples

  • Show your church members that you delight in all the spiritual fruit they bear, even if they themselves are discouragingly unimpressed by it.

    Blog text (23)
  • Although she tried her best, the feedback from the judges was discouragingly harsh.

  • "Does it?" I said, as discouragingly as possible.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • "He looked at Pitt discouragingly."

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Thus, with all this material demonstrating the benefits of habitual participation in sports, one might believe that most people take part regularly in some form of sport, but discouragingly enough, this is not the case.

    Academic text (1999)
  • While some have claimed Bellow is America's greatest writer of the twentieth century, others have discounted him as discouragingly redundant, telling the same story over and over again.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Alas, despite their best efforts, they poisoned the planet, burdened us with enormous debt, and, perhaps most discouragingly, somehow came to believe that the pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake was a worthwhile endeavor.

    Blog text (30)
  • The team played discouragingly in the final match, demoralized by their recent losses.

  • The project's results were discouragingly poor, leaving the researchers feeling defeated.

Synonyms

depressingly
vsdiscouragingly
5 4.1

In a way that makes you feel sad or hopeless

causes loss of confidence or enthusiasm rather than mainly sadness
disappointingly
vsdiscouragingly
4 3.8

In a way that is worse than people expected

causes loss of confidence or enthusiasm rather than merely unmet expectations
dauntingly
vsdiscouragingly
1 7.5

In a way that makes something seem too difficult to try

focuses on causing loss of confidence or enthusiasm rather than task difficulty
dispiritingly
vsdiscouragingly
1 7.7

In a way that makes people lose hope or confidence

focuses on losing confidence or enthusiasm rather than loss of hope
dishearteningly
vsdiscouragingly
1 7.4

In a way that makes you feel disappointed and lose hope

emphasizes loss of confidence or enthusiasm rather than mere disappointment
dismayingly
vsdiscouragingly
1 7.5

In a way that makes people feel surprised and upset

causes loss of confidence or enthusiasm rather than sudden shock or distress

Antonyms

In a way that gives someone more confidence or hope

How Discouraging

harshly
49 3.5
discouragingly
1 5.6
tepidly
1 7.4
gently
372 1.0

Surface Forms

discouragingly positive
discouraginglier comparative
discouragingliest superlative

Morphology

discouragingly = discouraging (transparent) = dis + courage + ing + ly

The adverb is a regular formation from the adjective 'discouraging' with '-ly' meaning 'in a discouraging manner'.

Etymology

Discouragingly comes from dis- meaning 'not' or 'to take away' and courage meaning 'bravery', so think of someone having their courage taken away. So, discouragingly means doing something 'in a way that makes someone lose confidence'.