Gloomy

How to spell gloomy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gloomy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gloomy mean?

1. adjectivePartially or wholly dark in a way that feels dreary or oppressive.
2. adjectiveLow in spirits or pessimistic about how things will turn out.

Gloomy in a sentence

• The basement office was gloomy even at midday.

• The quarterly report left the whole team feeling gloomy about the budget.

• Thick cloud made the whole afternoon gloomy and grey.

• He grew gloomy whenever the long winter nights set in.

Where does gloomy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grows out of 'gloom', which began life in late medieval English as a verb meaning 'to look sullen' or 'to frown', a word of genuinely uncertain origin that is often linked to Scots and to related Low German and Scandinavian forms suggesting a clouded or lowering look. The noun sense of 'gloom' as actual darkness or dimness developed later, and from there the adjective 'gloomy' was formed by adding the common '-y' ending that means 'full of' or 'marked by'. The poet John Milton did much to popularise the word in the 1600s, using it both for literal murk and for a heavy, melancholy mood, and that double duty survives today. The spelling trap is purely the double 'o' of the root 'gloom', mirrored by neighbours like 'doom' and 'broom', so once you anchor it to 'gloom' the rest follows. Because the deeper origin is so murky, the etymology itself is a little gloomy.

How the word is built

• gloom (darkness, dejection)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)