Despite Meaning
/dɪˈspaɪt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
prepIn spite of, not with standing.
nounDisdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.
Sentence Examples
Despite the importance of sleep, its purpose is a mystery.
He was still mad about the accident despite his wife's conciliatory words.
Her voice was shaking despite all her efforts to control it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
____ the heavy rain, the outdoor concert continued as planned.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ the importance of sleep, its purpose is a mystery.
Word Origin & History
The noun is derived from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of). Compare typologically Russian несмотря́ на (nesmotrjá na) (< смотре́ть (smotrétʹ)); невзира́я на (nevzirája na) (< взира́ть (vzirátʹ)), презре́в (prezrév) (< презре́ть (prezrétʹ) <~ зреть (zretʹ)) (compare despite—despise relation).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"So thou through windowes of thine age ſhalt ſee,
Diſpight of wrinkles this thy goulden time."
— 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 3”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"Yet doe thy worſt old Time diſpight thy wrong,
My loue ſhall in my verſe euer liue young."
— 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage."
— 1995, Billy Corgan, “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, in Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, performed by Smashing Pumpkins:
"Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film."
— 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions, volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, pages 219–257:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
____ the heavy rain, the outdoor concert continued as planned.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ the importance of sleep, its purpose is a mystery.