dismal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɪzməl/
rhymes: -ɪzməl
Forms: form: more dismal
form: most dismal
Etymology: From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).
Senses: synonyms: cataclysmic
catastrophic
ruinous
glosses: Disastrous, calamitous.
examples: text: He received a dismal compensation.
text: Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.
ref: 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:
synonyms: word: meager
word: paltry
word: awanting
word: deficient
word: dismal
word: exiguous
word: geason
word: inadequate
word: insufficient
word: lank
word: lean
word: meager
word: measly
word: paltry
word: raunchy
word: scant
word: scantling
word: scanty
word: scarce
word: skimpy
word: sleazy
word: slender
word: spare
word: sparse
word: threadbare
word: unsufficient
word: wanting
word: wanty
glosses: Disappointingly inadequate.
examples: text: The storm made for a dismal weekend
synonyms: word: desolate
word: dreary
word: cheerless
word: comfortless
word: bleak
word: dark
word: depressing
word: desolate
word: dire
word: disconsolate
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: drear
word: drearisome
word: dreary
word: dreich
word: forlorn
word: gayless
word: gray
word: gloomsome
word: gloomy
word: grim
word: joyless
word: lack-laughter
word: lugubrious
word: melancholy
word: mirthless
word: miserable
word: no joke
word: saturnine
word: solemn
word: somber
word: sombre
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: sunless
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unhappy
word: unmerry
word: wintry
word: woeful
glosses: Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
examples: text: She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair
text: So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: sorrowful
word: mournful
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
glosses: Depressing, dreary, cheerless.
Derived terms: dismal Dora
dismalise
dismality
dismalize
dismal Jimmy
dismally
dismalness
dismal science
Dismal Swamp
Great Dismal Swamp
undismal