How to Use dismal in a Sentence

dismal

adjective
  • The team's record is dismal.
  • The show was a dismal failure.
  • The impact of the new law on the state’s future ranking is dismal in Allen’s view.
    Brandon Drenon, The Indianapolis Star, 1 July 2022
  • Dumping your most dismal investments should enable you to book a loss.
    Jason Zweig, WSJ, 8 July 2022
  • Still, the number of Black women in board positions is dismal.
    Jasmine Browley, Essence, 3 July 2022
  • The benchmark index has been on a dismal streak that dragged it into a bear market earlier this month and is now down 20% for the year.
    Alex Viega, BostonGlobe.com, 30 June 2022
  • While vinyl had its 1% uptick in volume through midyear, CD sales were down 10.7% from the already dismal year before.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 20 July 2022
  • For example, if a coin loses support among users, the liquidation value of its issuer’s assets may be dismal at best when the dust settles.
    George Schultze, Forbes, 15 July 2022
  • But parent company Snap's warning on the economy — coupled with its dismal results — is bringing down the market.
    Julia Horowitz, CNN, 22 July 2022
  • Southeast Asian companies on the Nasdaq have had a dismal performance, with a median price decline of 80%.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune Asia, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Green Bay’s defense was dismal — to say the least — in the first half.
    Rob Reischel, Forbes, 29 Sep. 2024
  • On my last day in town, King takes me for a drive through the east end’s dismal sprawl.
    Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2023
  • At this time last year, the market approached the end of a dismal 2022.
    Max Zahn, ABC News, 27 Dec. 2023
  • May might have been joking, but such is the extent of the A’s dismal start.
    Matt Kawahara, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Apr. 2023
  • Over the last 20 years, stock pickers have had a dismal record.
    Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Eugene came in at rank 74 and Salem came in at a dismal 98th.
    oregonlive, 4 Sep. 2023
  • In the dismal science, this is what counts as good news.
    Christopher Decker, The Conversation, 15 May 2024
  • And the zero there isn’t the only dismal data on the Cards’ chart.
    Brett Dawson, The Courier-Journal, 29 Nov. 2022
  • The Packers closed the season 1-5-1 in a dismal slide that cost them a playoff spot.
    Journal Sentinel, 2 Jan. 2024
  • All in all, things are off to a promisingly dismal start.
    Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Across Greece, anger grew over the country’s dismal rail safety record.
    Iliana Magra, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2023
  • But Alvarez proved to be more than ready for the big leagues and Narvaez’s defense was dismal.
    Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 20 June 2024
  • This bill binds them tighter to the president and his dismal poll numbers.
    Karl Rove, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2022
  • Busch’s woes Kyle Busch’s dismal day ended with his Chevy getting towed off the track.
    Dan Gelston, Orlando Sentinel, 24 June 2024
  • But even by those more modest standards, this has been a dismal start.
    Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Nov. 2022
  • There are two ways of looking at these dismal lamb numbers.
    Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 8 June 2023
  • Certainly no one needs a recurrence of the dismal events of 2020.
    Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 7 July 2023
  • The fact that lecanemab stands out as a bright spot speaks to how dismal much of the history of research on treatments for Alzheimer’s has been.
    John Rennie, Quanta Magazine, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Brandon Miller He’s been one of a few bright spots in the otherwise dismal season for the Hornets.
    Roderick Boone, Charlotte Observer, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Arizona voters have a dismal view of the economy, where the country is headed and even their own lives, according to several polls released in the past week.
    Stephanie Murray, The Arizona Republic, 1 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dismal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: