[Vocabulary] Depressed or desperate?

[MrSuit]

English isn't my native language, but i'm studying it at college. I had a quiz last week and yesterday i got my results, then i had a discussion with my teacher. The thing is like this, there is one letter (the first of a word) and then is a phrase or its meaning, so we have to recognize the word and write it.

D....... : Feeling of losing all hope

I filled it with depressed, because at least being depressed for me is that, but then the teacher says that i was wrong, that desperate fits it better, and i'm not against that, i admit the fact that desperate could fit it better but is my choice really that bad?

I mean, now i wonder if desperate is really that different from depressed. Any help would be appreciated ;-)

 

[khanhhung2512]

NOT A TEACHER
I propose an even better word: 'despairing'.
According to Oxford (OALD8):
despairing: showing or feeling the loss of all hope
desperate: feeling or showing that you have little hope and are ready to do anything without worrying about danger to yourself or others
You can check them here: www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

 

[Raymott]

There's probably a few D-words that fit there. Both 'desperate' and 'depressed' could fit. Despairing, desolate, discouraged, despondent, dispirited, distressed.
But there are shades of meaning in all of those. I would choose 'desperate' because of the official meaning:

Desperate
adjective

• 1.
  feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.
  "a desperate sadness enveloped Ruth"
  http://www.google.com.au/webhp?nord=1#nord=1&q=desperate+meaning
• 
  
• But that's only one definition of 'desperate'. Now a severely depressed person could certainly have lost all hope. But that's not the primary denotation. The real answer is debatable.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I agree with the variety of answers proposed, but they should all be nouns:

desperation
depression
despair

 

[Tdol]

I agree with Mike that they should be nouns- despair would be my first choice, but others work fine.