Synonyms for dismal
ˈdɪz məl

Princeton's WordNet(4.33 / 3 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, dismal, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, dreary(adj)

   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

English Synonyms and Antonyms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

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 Antonyms(3.50 / 2 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. dismal

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

Dictionary of English Synonymes(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. dismal(a.)

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

2. dismal(a.)

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

3. dismal(a.)

   Synonyms:
   horrid, horrible, terrible, dire, frightful

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. dismal(a)

   Synonyms:
   dreary, gloomy, cheerless, joyless, sombre

PPDB, the paraphrase database(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these paraphrases:

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. Weiwen Ng:

   Export data from Singapore as well as the region confirm persistent cyclical and structural pressures on Asian trade, should the dismal export print persist or worsen, it will raise the odds of downside risks to Singapore's growth and put an October MAS easing into view, though that's not our base case at this juncture.

2. 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.

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. Henry Van Dyke:

   Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.

5. Mike Strobel:

   It's looking pretty dismal over much of the West, but there are some areas where we're OK.

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