Gloom

How to spell gloom

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gloom

What does gloom mean?

1. nounPartial or near-total darkness, where little light can reach.
2. nounA feeling of deep sadness, despondency, or hopelessness.

Gloom in a sentence

• The candle barely pierced the gloom of the cellar.

• News of the redundancies cast a gloom over the whole office.

• Figures moved through the gloom of the unlit warehouse.

• A sense of gloom settled on her after the project was cancelled.

Where does gloom come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Gloom began life as a verb rather than a noun. In Middle English the verb gloumen or glomen meant 'to look sullen' or 'to frown', and it is thought to share a Germanic ancestry with words describing a clouded or lowering look. For a long time the word stayed close to that idea of a darkened expression. The familiar noun, meaning shadowy half-light or low spirits, only became common in the 1600s, and the poet John Milton did much to popularise it in this fuller sense. The double 'o' simply spells the long 'oo' vowel, the same pattern seen in 'room' and 'broom', which is why the spelling rarely trips writers up. Its origin is reasonably clear as a native Germanic word, though the very earliest connections are a little hazy.

How the word is built

• gloom (single root from Middle English gloumen 'to look sullen'; no prefix or suffix)