Standard Lemma guide

sombre

adj · noun · verb · 8 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsɒmbə/
  • General-American: /ˈsɑmbɚ/
  • Canada: /ˈsɒmbəɹ/
  • Canada: [sɔ̃ː.bɹ(ə)]
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒmbə(ɹ)

1

adj

Meaning 1

Dark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bleak, dreary, cheerless, comfortless, dark, morose, depressing, desolate, 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

2

adj

Meaning 2

Dull or dark in colour or brightness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fuscous, inky, blear, caliginous, cimmerian, crepuscular, dark, darksome, darkling, dim, dimpsy, dingy, dull, dusky, fuliginous, gloomy, infernal, leaden, lightless, mirksome, murky, murksome, obscure, shady, somber, sombrous, stygian, sunless, swarthy, tenebrose, tenebrous, twilightish, umbrageous, unilluminated, deep, full, languid, muted, intense, saturated

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Melancholic, gloomy, dreary, dismal; grim.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: despondent, unhappy, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, 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, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Grave; extremely serious.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK

Examples

  • a sombre situation

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: earnest, staid, austere, frightful, demure, serious, grave, grievous, lack-laughter, thoughtful, sad, sage, saturnine, sedate, solemn, solemncholy, sober, somber, sombre, stern, sweer, weightsome, weighty

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

Gloom; obscurity; duskiness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK, obsolete, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To make sombre or dark; to make shady.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

grave or even gloomy in character

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • solemn and mournful music
  • a suit of somber black
  • a somber mood

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: somber, melancholy

Antonyms: none provided

8

adjective satellite

Meaning 8

lacking brightness or color; dull

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • drab faded curtains
  • sober Puritan grey
  • children in somber brown clothes

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: drab, sober, somber

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French sombre (“dark”), from Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer or Latin sub- + umbra. Compare Spanish sombra (“shade; dark part of a picture; ghost”).

Across languages

Translations

91 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: мрачен (mračen) — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Catalan: ombrívol — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Czech: stinný — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Czech: tmavý — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Czech: temný — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Finnish: synkkä — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • French: sombre — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Galician: sombrío — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • German: dunkel — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • German: düster — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • German: finster — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • German: trübe — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Māori: pōuriuri — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Māori: whakapoururu — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Norman: sombre — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Persian: تاریک، محزون — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Plautdietsch: dunkel — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Portuguese: escuro — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Portuguese: sombrio — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Portuguese: lúgubre — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Portuguese: soturno — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Russian: мра́чный (mráčnyj) — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Russian: па́смурный (pásmurnyj) — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Russian: хму́рый (xmúryj) — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Spanish: sombrío — dark; gloomy, dimly lit
  • Armenian: մռայլ (mṙayl) — dull or dark in colour
  • Bulgarian: тъмен (tǎmen) — dull or dark in colour
  • Czech: tmavý — dull or dark in colour
  • Czech: temný — dull or dark in colour
  • Finnish: synkkä — dull or dark in colour
  • Finnish: pimeä — dull or dark in colour
  • French: sombre — dull or dark in colour
  • German: matt — dull or dark in colour
  • German: stumpf — dull or dark in colour
  • German: dunkel — dull or dark in colour
  • German: finster — dull or dark in colour
  • German: trüb — dull or dark in colour
  • German: trübe — dull or dark in colour
  • Hebrew: קוֹדֵר (qodér) — dull or dark in colour
  • Hungarian: sötét — dull or dark in colour
  • Hungarian: komor — dull or dark in colour
  • Māori: pōuriuri — dull or dark in colour
  • Plautdietsch: dunkel — dull or dark in colour
  • Portuguese: escuro — dull or dark in colour
  • Portuguese: sombrio — dull or dark in colour
  • Russian: мра́чный (mráčnyj) — dull or dark in colour
  • Russian: тёмный (tjómnyj) — dull or dark in colour
  • Spanish: sombrío — dull or dark in colour
  • Bulgarian: унил (unil) — melancholic; dismal
  • Chinese Mandarin: 陰沉 /阴沉 (yīnchén) — melancholic; dismal
  • Chinese Mandarin: 陰鬱 /阴郁 (yīnyù) — melancholic; dismal
  • Czech: chmurný — melancholic; dismal
  • Czech: zasmušilý — melancholic; dismal
  • Dutch: somber — melancholic; dismal
  • Finnish: synkkä — melancholic; dismal
  • Finnish: ankea — melancholic; dismal
  • French: sombre — melancholic; dismal
  • Galician: sombrío — melancholic; dismal
  • German: verhalten — melancholic; dismal
  • German: trübe — melancholic; dismal
  • German: freudlos — melancholic; dismal
  • German: traurig — melancholic; dismal
  • German: düster — melancholic; dismal
  • German: finster — melancholic; dismal
  • German: schwermütig — melancholic; dismal
  • Hebrew: נוּגֶה (nugé) — melancholic; dismal
  • Hungarian: komor — melancholic; dismal
  • Hungarian: mogorva — melancholic; dismal
  • Japanese: 薄暗い (usugurai) — melancholic; dismal
  • Japanese: 重苦しい (omokurushii) — melancholic; dismal
  • Polish: ponury — melancholic; dismal
  • Polish: posępny — melancholic; dismal
  • Portuguese: sombrio — melancholic; dismal
  • Russian: мра́чный (mráčnyj) — melancholic; dismal
  • Russian: па́смурный (pásmurnyj) — melancholic; dismal
  • Russian: хму́рый (xmúryj) — melancholic; dismal
  • Russian: угрю́мый (ugrjúmyj) — melancholic; dismal
  • Russian: уны́лый (unýlyj) — melancholic; dismal
  • Scottish Gaelic: gruamach — melancholic; dismal
  • Spanish: sombrío — melancholic; dismal
  • Swedish: dyster — melancholic; dismal
  • Bulgarian: сериозен (seriozen) — grave
  • Czech: vážný — grave
  • Esperanto: serioza — grave
  • Finnish: vakava — grave
  • French: sombre — grave
  • German: ernst — grave
  • German: schwerwiegend — grave
  • Hungarian: komoly — grave
  • Russian: непростой (neprostoj) — grave
  • Russian: трудный (trudnyj) — grave