gloom
Americannoun
-
total or partial darkness; dimness.
- Antonyms:
- brightness
-
a state of melancholy or depression; low spirits.
- Synonyms:
- sadness, despondency, dejection
- Antonyms:
- cheerful
-
a despondent or depressed look or expression.
verb (used without object)
-
glooms,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gloomed,
past participle, past
-
glooming
present participle
-
to appear or become dark, dim, or somber.
-
to look sad, dismal, or dejected; frown.
verb (used with object)
-
glooms,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gloomed,
past participle, past
-
glooming
present participle
-
to fill with gloom; make gloomy or sad; sadden.
-
to make dark or somber.
noun
-
partial or total darkness
-
a state of depression or melancholy
-
an appearance or expression of despondency or melancholy
-
poetic a dim or dark place
verb
-
(intr) to look sullen or depressed
-
to make or become dark or gloomy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
undergloomnoun
-
outgloomverb (used with object)
-
ungloomverb (used with object)
-
gloomfuladjective
-
gloomlessadjective
-
gloomfullyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gloomsimple
-
gloomssimple
-
have gloomedperfect
-
has gloomedperfect
-
am gloomingprogressive
-
are gloomingprogressive
-
is gloomingprogressive
-
have been gloomingperfect progressive
-
has been gloomingperfect progressive
Past
-
gloomedsimple
-
had gloomedperfect
-
was gloomingprogressive
-
were gloomingprogressive
-
had been gloomingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gloom
1300–50; Middle English gloumben, glomen to frown, perhaps representing Old English *glūmian (akin to early German gläumen to make turbid); see glum
Explanation
Gloom is a hazy darkness or dimness. The gloom of a moonless autumn evening is perfect for trick-or-treating, but not so perfect for sizing up your candy stash. It might make you nervous to walk in the gloom of your friend's rural neighborhood at night if you're used to well-lit city streets. And while gloom perfectly describes the near-dark of dusk or a foggy evening, it can also describe a dark, dismal mood. Your brother's gloom when his favorite basketball team loses in the playoffs will only deepen if your favorite team wins the tournament. Gloom is a Scottish word, originally meaning "a sullen look."
Vocabulary lists containing gloom
"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou
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Billie Holiday (1915–1959) Tribute List
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"The Blue and the Gray" by Francis Miles Finch
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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:
But by then, the economy may be slowing under the weight of higher interest rates, soaring fuel prices and gloom brought on by falling house prices, he added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
He says some of the projections by the stay side are all "doom and gloom", joking that the only possible negative they failed to include is "a large asteroid hitting Canada".
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
And for much of the game Sunday, gloom once again engulfed McVay and a team that opened the season as a heavy Super Bowl favorite.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
But the study’s results weren’t all doom and gloom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
From directly above them a ray of sun penetrated the gloom of the forest, bathing them in warmth.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
Perhaps this is just the last defiant cry of a defeated Imperial-sponsored bounty hunter, determined to give our hero the glooms about her chances of victory before departing this mortal coil.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 7, 2016
Long-term ideas of “destiny” are not easily assimilated to shorter-term glooms about the loss of American power and prestige.
From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2011
They send out waves of joy that jolt an audience right out of the glooms and start it stamping floors and pounding fists on chairs.
From Time Magazine Archive
Shy, moody, frail, Owen began writing melancholy, softly sensuous verse in his teens, dealing generally with "golden gardens and sweet glooms."
From Time Magazine Archive
Day was coming again in the world outside, and far beyond the glooms of Mordor the Sun was climbing over the eastern rim of Middle-earth; but here all was still dark as night.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
In their concern, the people hoped for the best, prepared for the worst, gloomed at the sinkings and took courage from their heroes.
From Time Magazine Archive
James Redd gloomed when Cow Creek flooded his farm, brightened when he harvested $200 worth of lost balls washed from a neighboring golf course.
From Time Magazine Archive
They, too. gloomed as brisk Premier Flandin popped in as the new Governor of the Bank of France last week bland M. Jean Tannery.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dejected, inconsolable, Steve Early gloomed in Washington, fearful that he might have cost his boss the election.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sergeant Tozier had come up, that big-nosed man, towered over the lieutenant, gloomed down at him.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
The contrast between the way these people talk about the world, the performative doom ’n’ glooming so prevalent in social media and casual conversation, and their actual, lived concerns seems the point of Rooney’s fiction.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2021
The Philharmonikers have kept a stiff upper lip, but the Philadelphians, after brooding and glooming for a whole season, last week broke out in a williwaw.
From Time Magazine Archive
Meanwhile in Manhattan, old-line publishers were glooming because there were no new writers to replace the big names rapidly dying off: Ruskin, Tennyson, Carlyle, Emerson, etc.
From Time Magazine Archive
After glooming for years over the falling U.S. birth rate, the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
The turtle paddled steadily toward her, a hump of shell glooming dark in the gray waves, and heaved herself onto the sand.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
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