adj
Meaning 1
Disastrous, calamitous.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: cataclysmic, catastrophic, ruinous
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
dismal
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈdɪzməl/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪzməl
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CMU ARPABET: D IH1 Z M AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Disappointingly inadequate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- He received a dismal compensation.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: meager, paltry, awanting, deficient, dismal, exiguous, geason, inadequate, insufficient, lank, lean, lousy, measly, poor, raunchy, scant, scantling, scanty, scarce, skimpy, sleazy, slender, spare, sparse, threadbare, unsatisfactory, unsufficient, wanting, wanty
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 3
Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- The storm made for a dismal weekend
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: desolate, dreary, cheerless, comfortless, bleak, dark, morose, depressing, dire, disconsolate, dismal, doleful, dolesome, drear, drearisome, dreich, forlorn, gayless, gray, gloomsome, gloomy, grim, joyless, lack-laughter, lugubrious, melancholy, mirthless, miserable, no joke, saturnine, solemn, somber, sombre, spiritless, sullen, sunless, uncheerful, uncheery, unhappy, unmerry, wintry, woeful
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 4
Depressing, dreary, cheerless.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: sorrowful, mournful, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, dated, possibly
Qualifier: especially North Carolina
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 6
causing dejection
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a blue day
- the dark days of the war
- a week of rainy depressing weather
- a disconsolate winter landscape
- the first dismal dispiriting days of November
- a dark gloomy day
- grim rainy weather
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, dreary
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).
Across languages
Translations
110 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: плачевен (plačeven) — disappointingly inadequate
- Bulgarian: нищожен (ništožen) — disappointingly inadequate
- Czech: neradostný — disappointingly inadequate
- Czech: neuspokojivý — disappointingly inadequate
- Czech: tristní — disappointingly inadequate
- Czech: katastrofální — disappointingly inadequate
- Czech: žalostný — disappointingly inadequate
- Finnish: surkea — disappointingly inadequate
- French: lamentable — disappointingly inadequate
- French: misérable — disappointingly inadequate
- German: unzureichend — disappointingly inadequate
- German: unzulänglich — disappointingly inadequate
- German: jämmerlich — disappointingly inadequate
- German: kläglich — disappointingly inadequate
- German: miserabel — disappointingly inadequate
- Hindi: निराशाजनक (nirāśājnak) — disappointingly inadequate
- Hungarian: elszomorító — disappointingly inadequate
- Hungarian: sikertelen — disappointingly inadequate
- Portuguese: inadequado — disappointingly inadequate
- Romanian: dezamagitor de inadecvat — disappointingly inadequate
- Spanish: pésimo — disappointingly inadequate
- Spanish: mísero — disappointingly inadequate
- Turkish: berbat — disappointingly inadequate
- Bulgarian: мра́чен (mráčen) — gloomy and bleak
- Czech: chmurný — gloomy and bleak
- Czech: neradostný — gloomy and bleak
- Czech: bezútěšný — gloomy and bleak
- Czech: neutěšený — gloomy and bleak
- Czech: pochmurný — gloomy and bleak
- Dutch: akelig — gloomy and bleak
- Esperanto: senĝoja — gloomy and bleak
- Finnish: synkkä — gloomy and bleak
- Finnish: surullinen — gloomy and bleak
- Finnish: ankea — gloomy and bleak
- French: morne — gloomy and bleak
- French: lugubre — gloomy and bleak
- German: traurig — gloomy and bleak
- German: trübe — gloomy and bleak
- German: trostlos — gloomy and bleak
- German: freudlos — gloomy and bleak
- German: düster — gloomy and bleak
- German: finster — gloomy and bleak
- German: trist — gloomy and bleak
- German: trüb — gloomy and bleak
- German: fade — gloomy and bleak
- German: fad — gloomy and bleak
- German: trübselig — gloomy and bleak
- German: trübsinnig — gloomy and bleak
- Greek: θλιβερός (thliverós) — gloomy and bleak
- Greek: ζοφερός (zoferós) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: मनहूस (manhūs) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: वीरान (vīrān) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: सुनसान (sunsān) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: उजाड़ (ujāṛ) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: लक़दक़ (laqdaq) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: तमस्वी (tamasvī) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: तमोमय (tamomay) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: फीका (phīkā) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: रूखा (rūkhā) — gloomy and bleak
- Hindi: मलिन (malin) — gloomy and bleak
- Hungarian: szomorú — gloomy and bleak
- Hungarian: sötét — gloomy and bleak
- Hungarian: bús — gloomy and bleak
- Korean: 음침하다 (eumchimhada) — gloomy and bleak
- Latin: funestus — gloomy and bleak
- Māori: poururu — gloomy and bleak
- Māori: whakapoururu — gloomy and bleak
- Norwegian: stusslig — gloomy and bleak
- Portuguese: sombrio — gloomy and bleak
- Russian: мра́чный (mráčnyj) — gloomy and bleak
- Russian: угрю́мый (ugrjúmyj) — gloomy and bleak
- Russian: уны́лый (unýlyj) — gloomy and bleak
- Spanish: lúgubre — gloomy and bleak
- Spanish: funesto — gloomy and bleak
- Spanish: tétrico — gloomy and bleak
- Turkish: kasvetli — gloomy and bleak
- Ottoman Turkish: آجی (acı) — gloomy and bleak
- Bulgarian: тъ́жен (tǎ́žen) — depressing
- Bulgarian: уни́л (uníl) — depressing
- Czech: deprimující — depressing
- Czech: depresivní — depressing
- Czech: chmurný — depressing
- Czech: pochmurný — depressing
- Finnish: surullinen — depressing
- Finnish: synkeä — depressing
- Finnish: synkkä — depressing
- French: déprimant — depressing
- German: unglücklich — depressing
- German: deprimiert — depressing
- German: deprimierend — depressing
- German: traurig — depressing
- German: trostlos — depressing
- German: freudlos — depressing
- German: düster — depressing
- German: finster — depressing
- German: trist — depressing
- German: trübselig — depressing
- German: trübsinnig — depressing
- Greek: θλιβερός (thliverós) — depressing
- Hebrew: מדכא (medake) — depressing
- Hungarian: szomorú — depressing
- Hungarian: lehangoló — depressing
- Hungarian: gyászos — depressing
- Hungarian: komor — depressing
- Hungarian: vigasztalan — depressing
- Romanian: deprimant — depressing
- Russian: гнету́щий (gnetúščij) — depressing
- Russian: уны́лый (unýlyj) — depressing
- Scottish Gaelic: brònach — depressing
- Ottoman Turkish: آجی (acı) — depressing
Real reading context