Despite means even though something is true, or without being stopped by something. When you succeed despite obstacles, those obstacles existed but didn't prevent your success. If you finish a race despite a twisted ankle, the injury was real but you kept going anyway.

The word captures a powerful idea: that one thing happens even when another thing might have stopped it. A ship sails despite rough seas. A team wins despite being behind at halftime. A student masters division despite finding it confusing at first.

Despite shows contrast between two facts: the difficulty and the achievement. It's similar to “in spite of,” and you can usually swap them. “Despite the rain” and “in spite of the rain” mean the same thing. Both phrases point to something that happened anyway, when you might have expected it not to.

Notice that despite doesn't mean ignoring a problem or pretending it doesn't exist. It means acknowledging the challenge while showing that success happened regardless. When you read that someone accomplished something despite great odds, you're learning that the odds were genuinely against them, but they found a way through.