gloom

Meaning

Noun

1. Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
2. A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
4. A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

Verb

1. To be dark or gloomy.
2. To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
3. To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
4. To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

Synonyms

darkness

melancholy

depression

gloominess

sadness

dejection

shadow

dark

sorrow

somberness

sombreness

unhappiness

grief

shade

obscurity

gloomy

dimness

dusk

murk

despondence

despondency

sad

☹️

despair

glumness

hopelessness

blackness

melancholia

twilight

lifelessness

sullenness

pessimism

moodiness

mopes

night

🌃

pensiveness

regret

sale

scowl

sorrowfulness

subtraction

tragedy

tristesse

trouble

unfriendliness

weakness

weariness

worry

total darkness

business recession

deep contemplation

anxious look

melancholy air

traces of sorrow

mental depression

apathy

fatigue

morbidity

pain

mopishness

slight darkness

being dispirited

batch drier

drying oven baker

alarm

wofare

angularity

bleakness

blues

cheerlessness

consternation

crookedness

deduction

dejectedness

demand

dinginess

disconsolation

disease

disheartenment

dismay

dolefulness

downheartedness

dreariness

drier

dumps

exhaustion

frown

grimness

hard times

inactiveness

indolence

inertness

kiln

lower

mirk

misery

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɡluːm/

Etymology

From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).