dismal
[ diz-muhl ]
/ ˈdɪz məl /
Save This Word!
adjective
causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy: dismal weather.
characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful: Our team played a dismal game.
Obsolete.
- disastrous; calamitous.
- unlucky; sinister.
noun
Southern U.S. a tract of swampy land, usually along the coast.
QUIZZES
QUIZ YOURSELF ON THE MANY TYPES OF NOUNS
They're everywhere you turn, but can you identify the 10 types of nouns easily? This quiz will test your mettle against singular, plural, concrete, abstract, common, proper, collective, compound, countable, and uncountable nouns!
Question 1 of 7
Shoelaces, rainbow, toothpaste, and haircuts are all what type of noun?
Meet Grammar Coach
Improve Your Writing
Origin of dismal
1275–1325; Middle English dismale unlucky time, dismol day one of two days in each month considered unlucky (hence later taken as adj.) <Anglo-French dis mal<Medieval Latin diēs malī literally, evil days
OTHER WORDS FROM dismal
dis·mal·ly, adverbdis·mal·ness, dis·mal·i·ty, nounDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for dismal
British Dictionary definitions for dismal
dismal
/ (ˈdɪzməl) /
adjective
causing gloom or depression
causing dismay or terror
of poor quality or a low standard; feeble
Derived forms of dismal
dismally, adverbdismalness, nounWord Origin for dismal
C13: from dismal (noun) list of 24 unlucky days in the year, from Medieval Latin diēs malī bad days, from Latin diēs day + malus bad
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012