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. 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.

2. Michelle Krebs:

   When you look back to where we were in March and how dismal things looked, it's incredible how strong the year ended.

3. Stephen Innes:

   It's not economic uncertainty we should be worried about rather its the doom and gloom economic realities that the key forward-looking manufacturing PMI's are telling us about the dismal health of this rapidly deteriorating global macro environment.

4. 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.

5. Kathleen Brooks:

   Although the Remain camp has managed to stem the recent wave of support for the Brexiteers, the outcome is still very much uncertain and trading is likely to be sporadic and volumes thin in the next two sessions, with the EU referendum on a knife-edge, the market is right to look elsewhere for direction. Some of this came from Yellen, who reinforced (the) message that the Fed will slow the pace of rate hikes if the U.S. economy posts another dismal jobs report for June.