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.
Some of the other 489 IPOs worked out nicely, too, but the overall picture of a diversified internet portfolio was dismal, despite Amazon’s phenomenal performance.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 31, 2026
But “Stronger” returned dismal numbers at the box office, grossing just $7.7 million on a $30 million budget.
From Salon • May 27, 2026
It sounds dismal, but there’s a lot you can do to slow the aging process.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
Muse said he expects Nvidia to return $1 trillion to shareholders over the next five years, making its latest share authorization appear a bit dismal.
From MarketWatch • May 22, 2026
Devon is sometimes considered the most beautiful school in New England, and even on this dismal afternoon its power was asserted.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
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.
