dismal
Americanadjective
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causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy.
dismal weather.
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characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful.
Our team played a dismal game.
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Obsolete.
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disastrous; calamitous.
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unlucky; sinister.
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noun
adjective
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causing gloom or depression
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causing dismay or terror
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of poor quality or a low standard; feeble
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dismal
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English dismale “unlucky time,” dismol day one of two days in each month considered unlucky (hence later taken as adjective), from Anglo-French dis mal, from Medieval Latin diēs malī, literally, “evil days”; cf. diary ( def. ), mal- ( def. )
Explanation
Dismal is a dreary, depressing sort of bad. "With the cold rain and their team behind by six field goals, the mood in the stands was so dismal even the cheerleaders had lost their 'Rah.'" Dismal comes from the Latin dies mali which means "bad days." There is a hopelessness implied in the word. If you fell on the way to school and cut your knee, it would be bad, but not dismal. If you fell into a giant mud puddle and had to wear dirty, crusty clothes until you got home, it might make the school day seem pretty dismal.
Vocabulary lists containing dismal
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 9
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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.
In the same way a dismal class performance on a business school exam will still yield some A’s, curves also apply in the stock market when a company’s results aren’t necessarily jumping off the page.
From Barron's • Jun. 29, 2026
The Phillies were 9-19 when they promoted Mattingly to replace the fired Rob Thomson, a dismal start for a team that features the likes of Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 20, 2026
England manager Thomas Tuchel has spoken about wanting to continue the work former boss Gareth Southgate did in building a connection between fans and the squad after years of dismal tournaments.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2026
“If there’s anything that I can pull from this dismal gray moment in history, it’s the hope that, for our culture and our celebrations, this revives us.”
From Salon • Jun. 19, 2026
Under ordinary circumstances, Aru probably would have slipped into the quicksand herself and both of them would have become dismal Wikipedia pages.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
