gloomy
Americanadjective
-
dark or dim; deeply shaded.
gloomy skies.
- Synonyms:
- threatening, lowering, dusky, shadowy, obscure
-
causing gloom; dismal or depressing.
a gloomy prospect.
-
filled with or showing gloom; sad, dejected, or melancholy.
- Synonyms:
- dispirited, glum, depressed, despondent, downhearted, downcast
- Antonyms:
- happy
-
hopeless or despairing; pessimistic.
a gloomy view of the future.
adjective
-
dark or dismal
-
causing depression, dejection, or gloom
gloomy news
-
despairing; sad
Synonym Usage
See dark ( def. ).
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
gloominessnoun
-
overgloominessnoun
-
overgloomyadjective
-
ungloomyadjective
-
gloomilyadverb
-
overgloomilyadverb
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ungloomilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gloomy
Explanation
Gloomy means "dark and dreary." A cloudy day, a sad song about lost love, your downbeat mood after your team loses a big game — all of these can be called gloomy. Have you ever been called a Gloomy Gus? If so, you must have been acting depressed or sulky. But you aren't the first to be called that — after all, Gloomy Gus was a comic book character who first appeared in 1904. By the 1940s, this nickname caught on, describing — and possibly adding to the misery — of those who are less happy-seeming than the people around them.
Vocabulary lists containing gloomy
Beowulf vocabulary
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 4
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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 in a gloomy sign, fixed-asset investment slid 5.7 percent on-year in the first half.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Even if you’re a realist, don’t let gloomy projections get you down.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
Louis, in comparison, is kinda busted — gloomy, tortured, unable to fully embrace the everlasting banquet Lestat has laid out for him.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Consumers also have never felt this gloomy about the U.S. economy before.
From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026
Dodos, as you know, are extinct; therefore, this rather gloomy phrase means that the thing being described is not merely dead.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Consumer spending still accounts for two-thirds of gross domestic product, and Americans have rarely felt gloomier about shopping–even as they continue to open their wallets.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
U.S. stocks took a breather from their rally to fresh record highs on Tuesday as investors confronted a gloomier inflation backdrop.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
The increase came as respondents' views of current business and job market conditions improved, though their outlooks for the future were gloomier.
From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026
“Even though I don’t feel the current strain,” the 32-year-old said of gloomier consumer sentiment data and a recent wave of corporate layoffs, “I feel like I’m anticipating or worried about what may potentially happen.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
The afternoon is bright enough, but Berlin seems not to want to accept the sunlight, as though its buildings have become gloomier and dirtier and more splotchy in the months since he last visited.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Even the gloomiest prognosticator thinks a formal default is highly unlikely, and the idea that it might happen within six years is in the very outside realm of risk.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
“I’m the gloomiest I’ve been since 1979,” one economist told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
Slap-bang in the middle of a month that is all about freezing drizzle and self-denial, the third Monday in January is notoriously the gloomiest day of the year.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2026
Hell, we’ve got the gloomiest place of all: the United Kingdom.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
“In the gloomiest moments of the Revolutionary War,” he wrote in 1820, “I never had any apprehensions equal to what I feel from this source.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
