morose

adjective

mo·​rose mə-ˈrōs 

mȯ-

1

: having a sullen and gloomy disposition

2

: marked by or expressive of gloom

morosely adverb

moroseness noun

morosity

mə-ˈrä-sə-tē 

mȯ-

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
• glum
• godforsaken
• gray
• grey
• lonely
• lonesome
• lugubrious
• miserable
• morbid
• murky
• plutonian
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• solemn
• somber
• sombre
• sullen
• sunless
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• wretched

Choose the Right Synonym for morose

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 morose in a Sentence

She thought of the bootlegger at home—a raddled, skinny old man, morose and suspicious. He sat on his front step with a shotgun on Halloween night. —Alice Munro, Runaway, 2004

We have little finished footage to go by, but enough to give us pause: an exquisite clip of Rochefort, sitting with a book in the half-darkness, his eyes wet, gleaming, and morose. —Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2003

I have never known if Momma sent for us, or if the St. Louis family just got fed up with my grim presence. There is nothing more appalling than a constantly morose child. —Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969

He became morose and withdrawn and would not talk to anyone.

those morose job seekers who have grown accustomed to rejection

Recent Examples on the Web

In this family road-trip pic set during the 2008 financial crisis, one disturbing sequence after another is played out on the morose face of John Magaro, who is clearly keeping the truth from them — and us — of what this journey is actually all about. —Damon Wise, Deadline, 2 Feb. 2025

The always astonishing Ben Whishaw plays the sweet, morose, gay, chain-smoking, furtively sincere, faraway-eyed Hujar, a veteran freelance photographer who was just coming into his own as a gallery artist and downtown scenester. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 27 Jan. 2025

To subvert whiteness with Blackness as a cultural and psychological lingua franca cannot possibly undo the wounds that molded modern Blackness in the first place, a diasporic concern that places even the most joyous liberation and self-expression in an especially morose context. —Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 27 Jan. 2025

Daniels is morose and whiny and Reynolds is hammy and over-the-top, which allows Stone to steal the movie, giving it its only modicum of zest and soul. —Tim Grierson, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin morosus, literally, capricious, from mor-, mos will

First Known Use

1565, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

morose

adjective

mo·​rose mə-ˈrōs 

mȯ-

: sullen sense 1a, gloomy

morosely adverb

moroseness noun