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.
It sounds dismal, but there’s a lot you can do to slow the aging process.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
After a dismal Australian Open second-round exit in January, she discussed at length how she yearned to play in "a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger".
From BBC • May 15, 2026
The party’s dismal showing in local elections last week sparked a flurry of plotting in Westminster.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 11, 2026
But for some in Labour the grating thing about their dismal position now is it's different to losing to the Conservatives - that feeling is familiar, it's in their DNA.
From BBC • May 9, 2026
But today the dismal boy was away visiting an aunt in Bensonhurst.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
