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. White House:

   Look back from shortly before the president launched his campaign to now, the accuracy rate of pundits’ negative predictions about him or his strategies is dismal, our MO, by contrast, has aged well: Tune out the noise, do the work, deliver; and remember that the president knows the American people and they know him.

3. 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.

4. David Tulk:

   The final quarter of the year is looking rather dismal for the Canadian economy, the wider backdrop of falling oil prices and renewed caution among businesses investing in the oil sands suggests the risk of an extended slowdown heading into Q1 remains significant.

5. Migrant Rights Director Steve Valdez-Symonds:

   Sending people to another country -- let alone one with such a dismal human rights record -- for asylum' processing' is the very height of irresponsibility and shows how far removed from humanity and reality the Government now is on asylum issues.