# sombre
## English
### Alternative forms

* somber (US)

### Etymology

Borrowed from French sombre (“dark”), from Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer or Latin sub- +‎ umbra. Compare Spanish sombra (“shade; dark part of a picture; ghost”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɒmbə/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈsɑmbɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒmbə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: som‧bre

### Adjective

sombre (comparative sombrer, superlative sombrest) (British spelling, Canadian spelling)
* Dark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit.
    Synonyms: bleak, dreary; see also Thesaurus:cheerless
** 2015, Hermann Kauders, Before The Cock Crows, →ISBN, page 9:The lady led him into a sombre hallway and disappeared. A moment later the windowless chamber was illuminated by the entry of a heavenly creature emitting a radiance prone to pierce the heart of any youth exposed to it.
* Dull or dark in colour or brightness.
    Synonyms: fuscous, inky; see also Thesaurus:dark, Thesaurus:dark colour
** 1877, The Black Band; or, The Mysteries of Midnight, page 47:His tall and slender figure, dressed in sombre black, his hair of that peculiar reddish auburn so rarely seen, his flashing black eyes, in which a fitful fire seemed for ever burning; all combined to give something almost of a demoniac air ...
* Melancholic, gloomy, dreary, dismal; grim.
    Synonyms: despondent, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:sad
** 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:The dinner was silent and sombre; happily it was also short.
** 1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1904, →OCLC:It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the ferocious and summary executions which marked the course of that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the sombre imbecility of political fanaticism.
** 2012, Peter Turnbull, Aftermath, Severn House Publishers Ltd, →ISBN:A sombre mood, very sombre in fact, thought Hennessey, as he stood against the wall observing the procedure for the police. He had not known a mood more sombre to have previously descended on the room.
* Grave; extremely serious.
    Synonyms: earnest, staid; see also Thesaurus:serious
    a sombre situation

#### Alternative forms

* somber (US)

#### Derived terms

* sombre rock chat
* sombre tit/somber tit
* sombrish
* sombrely
* sombresome

#### Translations
### Noun

sombre (uncountable)
* (obsolete) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness.

### Verb

sombre (third-person singular simple present sombres, present participle sombring, simple past and past participle sombred)
* To make sombre or dark; to make shady.

### References

* ↑ “sombre”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sombre”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* “sombre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Bomers, bromes, ombres, somber

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French sombre, likely from Latin sub umbra (“in/under the shade”); compare Spanish and Portuguese sombra (“shade, shadow”). Possibly derived through a verb *sombrer, from a Vulgar Latin *subumbrāre (“to shade, enshadow”), though this does not seem necessary. Compare also Old French essombre, with a different prefix.

### Pronunciation

* (France) IPA: /sɔ̃bʁ/
* (Canada) IPA: /sõːbʀ/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

sombre (plural sombres)
* dark
    Synonyms: foncé, obscur
    Antonym: clair
* (derogatory) right, damn, bloody
    un sombre crétin ― a prize idiot, a complete idiot, an unspeakable imbecile

#### Derived terms

* coupe sombre
* matière sombre

#### Related terms

* ombre

#### Descendants

* → English: sombre

### Verb

sombre
* inflection of sombrer:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

### Further reading

* “sombre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* ombres

## Norman
### Etymology

From Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer (from a Vulgar Latin *subumbrāre), or from Latin sub (“under”) + umbra (“shadow”).

### Adjective

sombre m or f
* (Jersey) sombre, dark

## Spanish
### Verb

sombre
* inflection of sombrar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative