glum

adjective

ˈgləm 

glummer; glummest

1

: broodingly morose

became glum when they heard the news

2

: dreary, gloomy

a glum countenance

glumly adverb

glumness noun

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• disconsolate
• dismal
• drear
• dreary
• dreich [chiefly Scottish]
• elegiac
• elegiacal
• forlorn
• funereal
• gloomy
• godforsaken
• gray
• grey
• lonely
• lonesome
• lugubrious
• miserable
• morbid
• morose
• murky
• plutonian
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• solemn
• somber
• sombre
• sullen
• sunless
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• wretched

Choose the Right Synonym for glum

sullen, glum, morose, surly, sulky, crabbed, saturnine, gloomy mean showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood.

sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable.

remained sullen amid the festivities

glum suggests a silent dispiritedness.

a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat

morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy.

morose job seekers who are inured to rejection

surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner.

a typical surly teenager

sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness.

grew sulky after every spat

crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner.

the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster

saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition.

a saturnine cynic always finding fault

gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness.

a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news

Examples of glum in a Sentence

There's no need to look so glum—things will get better soon.

There was a glum silence in the room.

Recent Examples on the Web

This may come as glum news for the next generation of bankers but the story is different for shareholders. —Michael Del Castillo, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2024

The new coach steps into a similarly glum situation, as the U.S. men crashed out of the first round in this summer’s Copa America on home soil. —Sportico Staff, Sportico.com, 15 Aug. 2024

Her bubbly energy has a perfect foil in Delaney, so tall and so glum. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Aug. 2024

In his pocket was a glum note, and around his neck was a container holding Jane’s ashes. —Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

akin to Middle English gloumen to gloom

First Known Use

1547, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

glum

adjective

ˈgləm 

glummer; glummest

1

: sullen sense 1a

2

: seeming gloomy and sad

a glum expression

glumly adverb

glumness noun