dismal

Meaning

1. Disastrous, calamitous.
2. Disappointingly inadequate.
3. Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
4. Depressing, dreary, cheerless.

Synonyms

dreary

miserable

bleak

gloomy

sad

☹️

nasty

horrible

gaunt

dark

somber

grim

wretched

meager

abject

poor

cheerless

pitiful

ghastly

joyless

disconsolate

mournful

depressing

sombre

sullen

grisly

blue

hideous

commonplace

trite

unenviable

obscure

dour

bad

👎

awful

terrible

lugubrious

dreadful

dull

dim

dingy

black

drear

drab

dismally

morose

repulsive

repelling

depressed

forbidding

repellent

forlorn

lonesomeness

drearily

funereal

sorry

squalid

desolate

grave

🪦

despondent

surly

melancholic

distasteful

harsh

unhappy

☹️

unpleasant

disagreeable

unkind

weep

wintry

wistful

woeful

glooming

subfusc

mirky

low spirited

gloomful

blackfaced

dreich

angry

😠

appalling

arduous

atrocious

blackened

boring

broody

brutal

challenging

clouded

crestfallen

cross

darkling

darksome

dejected

difficult

dire

dispiriting

distressing

disturbed

doleful

downcast

dumps

exacting

formidable

glum

grievous

gruesome

gruff

hard

heavy

hurtful

impoverished

introverted

melancholy

mirk

mirthless

murk

murky

painful

pathetic

peevish

pessimistic

pettish

petty

petulant

rough

rueful

sable

saddening

saturnine

sob

😭

sore

sorrowful

sour

stark

stodgy

sulky

sunless

tenebrous

tough

tragic

tristful

troublesome

ungracious

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈdɪzməl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: dismal

In summary

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”).