gloomy
Americanadjective
-
gloomier,
comparative
-
gloomiest
superlative
-
dark or dim; deeply shaded.
gloomy skies.
- Synonyms:
- threatening, lowering, dusky, shadowy, obscure
-
causing gloom; dismal or depressing.
a gloomy prospect.
-
filled with or showing gloom; sad, dejected, or melancholy.
- Synonyms:
- dispirited, glum, depressed, despondent, downhearted, downcast
- Antonyms:
- happy
-
hopeless or despairing; pessimistic.
a gloomy view of the future.
adjective
-
dark or dismal
-
causing depression, dejection, or gloom
gloomy news
-
despairing; sad
Synonym Usage
See dark ( def. ).
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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gloominessnoun
-
overgloominessnoun
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overgloomyadjective
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ungloomyadjective
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gloomilyadverb
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overgloomilyadverb
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ungloomilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gloomy
Explanation
Gloomy means "dark and dreary." A cloudy day, a sad song about lost love, your downbeat mood after your team loses a big game — all of these can be called gloomy. Have you ever been called a Gloomy Gus? If so, you must have been acting depressed or sulky. But you aren't the first to be called that — after all, Gloomy Gus was a comic book character who first appeared in 1904. By the 1940s, this nickname caught on, describing — and possibly adding to the misery — of those who are less happy-seeming than the people around them.
Vocabulary lists containing gloomy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The gloomy climate at City Hall drew in mayoral challengers, including Austin Beutner, a former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent and Los Angeles Times publisher, and leftist organizer Rae Huang.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026
If Joe & Troy start talking, there’s a risk it will turn into a gloomy episode of “Scenes from a Marriage.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
The gloomy builder outlook could be an opportunity for home buyers who can afford current home prices.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
The world's second-largest economy has charted a diverging path in recent years -- an AI-fuelled export boom is masking the impact of a persistent real estate crisis and gloomy consumer sentiment.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2026
He always looks gloomy on the last day of school, and it’s always for the same reason.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
The only thing gloomier than the leaden skies at lunch on day of the third Test at Edgbaston will have been the mood in the Pakistan dressing room as things went from bad to worse.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
A series of supply shocks have rippled through the U.S. economy over the past several years, leaving households stuck with a gloomier perception of their financial situations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Although it is still early, several new signals suggest employers are boosting entry-level hiring this spring after much gloomier projections just months ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Pushing back at gloomier forecasts of AI job disruption, OpenAI economists have released a study showing that just 18% of U.S. jobs are at a “relatively higher risk” of being eliminated in the near term.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 17, 2026
Another Christmas comes and goes and the holiday feels gloomier than ever.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Even the gloomiest prognosticator thinks a formal default is highly unlikely, and the idea that it might happen within six years is in the very outside realm of risk.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
“I’m the gloomiest I’ve been since 1979,” one economist told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
Slap-bang in the middle of a month that is all about freezing drizzle and self-denial, the third Monday in January is notoriously the gloomiest day of the year.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2026
I ended up with a string of the gloomiest conversations in my long career — and I’ve covered two foreign civil wars and more stock market crashes and economic slumps than I can count.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2025
I took dinner usually at the Yale Club--for some reason it was the gloomiest event of my day--and then I went upstairs to the library and studied investments and securities for a conscientious hour.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
