Synonyms for dismal
ˈdɪz məldis·mal

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. dismal

   Strictly, that which is black is absolutely destitute of color; that which is dark is absolutely destitute of light. In common speech, however, a coat is black, tho not optically colorless; the night is dark, tho the stars shine. That is obscure, shadowy, or shady from which the light is more or less cut off. Dusky is applied to objects which appear as if viewed in fading light; the word is often used, as are swart and swarthy, of the human skin when quite dark, or even verging toward black. Dim refers to imperfection of outline, from distance, darkness, mist, etc., or from some defect of vision. Opaque objects, as smoked glass, are impervious to light. Murky is said of that which is at once dark, obscure, and gloomy; as, a murky den; a murky sky. Figuratively, dark is emblematic of sadness, agreeing with somber, dismal, gloomy, also of moral evil; as, a dark deed. Of intellectual matters, dark is now rarely used in the old sense of a dark saying, etc. See MYSTERIOUS; OBSCURE.

   Compare synonyms for LIGHT.

   Synonyms:
   black, dark, dim, dusky, gloomy, murky, mysterious, obscure, opaque, sable, shadowy, shady, somber, swart, swarthy

   Antonyms:
   bright, brilliant, clear, crystalline, dazzling, gleaming, glowing, illumined, light, lucid, luminous, radiant, shining, transparent, white

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:3.5 / 2 votes

1. dismal

   Antonyms:
   gay, propitious, promising, cheerful, lively, elated, joyous, laughable, ridiculous, comic

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:4.3 / 3 votes

1. blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, dismal, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, drearyadjective

   causing dejection

   "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"

   Synonyms:
   black, blueish, non-white, gloomful, stern, unappeasable, ghastly, moody, forbidding, relentless, dingy, raunchy, bluish, mordant, sorry, risque, gruesome, depressed, dirty, gamey, down in the mouth, low, sinister, olive-drab, lamentable, muddied, unrelenting, sullen, juicy, sulky, bad, gloomy, meritless, low-spirited, saturnine, good-for-naught, dispirited, gamy, down(p), grisly, good-for-nothing, dark, naughty, unconsolable, benighted, sad, muddy, sober, gentle, grubby, grungy, dark-skinned, aristocratic, inconsolable, racy, regretful, somber, spicy, blue-blooded, blue, puritanical, no-count, drear, macabre, disconsolate, no-account, dreary, grimy, coloured, inexorable, puritanic, aristocratical, no-good, deplorable, glowering, morose, pitiful, patrician, profane, blasphemous, sombre, drab, glum, unforgiving, glooming, sour, blue(a), downcast, downhearted, distressing, dour, obscure, sick, grim, begrimed

   Antonyms:
   cheerful

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. dismaladjective

   Synonyms:
   cheerless, gloomy, dark, dull, dreary, lonesome

2. dismaladjective

   Synonyms:
   melancholy, mournful, sad, doleful, dolorous, sombre, lugubrious, funereal

3. dismaladjective

   Synonyms:
   horrid, horrible, terrible, dire, frightful

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. dismaladjective

   Synonyms:
   dreary, gloomy, cheerless, joyless, sombre

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "dismal":

   bleak, depressing, gloomy, grim, sad, sombre, regrettable, somber, dreary, dark, unfortunate

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How to use dismal in a sentence?

1. Ambac Financial Group Inc.:

   Countrywide's fraud is borne out by the transactions' dismal performance.

2. Ramana Pemmaraju:

   there has never been a moment in one's life when one might not have stumbled upon this strange reality: what am I doing, where am I so hurriedly running, what is my objective, this whole world is a rat race and I'm going no where, with out any goal, isn't it?. this thought comes to me very often. alas! what to do, don't know what and where to knock the door and experience reality. no sooner that I try, I'm again fallen into the dismal depths of abyss, into the worldly affairs”

3. Sadie Weiner:

   Panicked over his dismal reelection prospects, it appears that no bloc of Illinois voters is safe from the over-the-top and offensive rhetoric that seems to spew weekly from Mark Kirk's mouth.

4. Delara Derakhshani:

   One of the biggest questions about Charter and Time Warner Cable is whether the deal is in the public interest. Frankly, we're skeptical, prices for cable and broadband continue to go up, and customer service is dismal.

5. Craig Johnson:

   The past weekend will not save this holiday season, but combined with online sales, it would certainly save the year from being a dismal one.