Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Gloom |
GloomNoun1. A state of partial or total darkness; "he struck a match to dispell the gloom". 2. A feeling of melancholy apprehension. 3. An atmosphere of depression and melancholy; "gloom pervaded the office". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "gloom" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | A stove for drying gunpowder; drying oven. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: GloomSynonyms: gloominess (n), glumness (n), somberness (n), sombreness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Compensation | Phrase: " light is mingled with the gloom "; every dark cloud has a silver lining; primo avulso non deficit alter; saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas. |
Dejection | Heaviness; Adjective: infestivity, gloom; weariness; taedium vitae, disgust of life; mal du pays; (regret); anhedonia. |
Depress; discourage, dishearten; dispirit; damp, dull, deject, lower, sink, dash, knock down, unman, prostrate, break one's heart; frown upon; cast a gloom, cast a shade on; sadden; damp one's hopes, dash one's hopes, wither one's hopes; weigh on the mind, lie heavy on the mind, prey on the mind, weigh on the spirits, lie heavy on the spirits, prey on the spirits; damp the spirits, depress the spirits. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Gloom |
| English words defined with "gloom": cheer, cheerfulness, Cimmerian ♦ depressing, depression, depressive ♦ Glome, Gloomed, gloomily, Gloomth, gloomy, glum, Gothic, grim ♦ Kill-joy ♦ livid, long-faced ♦ Mirk ♦ night ♦ Overgloom ♦ saddening, Shadow of death ♦ Tenebrose ♦ Uncloud. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "gloom": Awake ♦ Bird's Nest ♦ Choir, Church, Cries, Crying, Cymbal ♦ February ♦ Hair, HEAD ♦ -head ♦ Horse, HUMORIST, Hurricane ♦ Kedron ♦ Lark, Letter ♦ Market, Mark's Eve ♦ Negro ♦ River ♦ Scarabee, Shelves, Sigh ♦ Tiger ♦ Water. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "gloom": Overgloom. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | To cry there in the gloom ("Heartbreak Hotel"; performing artist: Elvis Presley) The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom, And walked the night alone (The battle of evermore; performing artist: Led Zeppelin) With a heart full of gloom, (Bittersweet Me; performing artist: R.E.M.) A light hits the gloom on the grey (Kiss From A Rose; performing artist: Seal) The gathering gloom (Nights In White Satin; performing artist: The Moody Blues) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bride and Gloom (1954) Love In Gloom (1941) Grooms in Gloom (1936) The Gloom Chasers (1935) Bride and Gloom (1921) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Ah, like a wood Anemone, thy face, thy curving throat shone faintly through the enfolding gloom that hung about me. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Autos have to turn on lights to penetrate gloom of dust storm. Amarillo, Texas. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Leigh Hunt | Night's deepest gloom is but a calm; that soothes the weary mind: The labored days restoring balm; the comfort of mankind. |
William Wordsworth | Lost in a gloom of uninspired research. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | The weather added what it could of gloom. |
Tangled Tale | Carroll, Lewis | They had been out walking, and Hugh had been propounding a difficulty which had reduced Lambert to the depths of gloom, and had even puzzled Balbus |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of this dark forest |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He perceived distinctly in the gloom an unknown man, a stranger, whom fate had mistaken for him, and was pushing into the gulf in his place |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | The priest rose and, turning towards the altar, knelt upon the step before the tabernacle in the fallen gloom. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | In the gloom under the tarpaulin he saw the lumps of sleeping figures |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | South Africa | South Africa is however of course not immune to the IT gloom affecting the world economy at present. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | HEAD-:MONEY:, n. A capitation tax, or poll-tax. In ancient times there lived a king Whose tax-collectors could not wring From all his subjects gold enough To make the royal way less rough. For pleasure's highway, like the dames Whose premises adjoin it, claims Perpetual repairing. So The tax-collectors in a row Appeared before the throne to pray Their master to devise some way To swell the revenue. "So great," Said they, "are the demands of state A tithe of all that we collect Will scarcely meet them. Pray reflect: How, if one-tenth we must resign, Can we exist on t'other nine?" The monarch asked them in reply: "Has it occurred to you to try The advantage of economy?" "It has," the spokesman said: "we sold All of our gray garrotes of gold; With plated-ware we now compress The necks of those whom we assess. Plain iron forceps we employ To mitigate the miser's joy Who hoards, with greed that never tires, That which your Majesty requires." Deep lines of thought were seen to plow Their way across the royal brow. "Your state is desperate, no question; Pray favor me with a suggestion." "O King of Men," the spokesman said, "If you'll impose upon each head A tax, the augmented revenue We'll cheerfully divide with you." As flashes of the sun illume The parted storm-cloud's sullen gloom, The king smiled grimly. "I decree That it be so -- and, not to be In generosity outdone, Declare you, each and every one, Exempted from the operation Of this new law of capitation. But lest the people censure me Because they're bound and you are free, 'Twere well some clever scheme were laid By you this poll-tax to evade. I'll leave you now while you confer With my most trusted minister." The monarch from the throne-room walked And straightway in among them stalked A silent man, with brow concealed, Bare-armed -- his gleaming axe revealed! G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | The power of doom and gloom is awesome to me. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how resplendent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Gloom" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.84% of the time. "Gloom" is used about 833 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.84% | 815 | 8,576 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.2% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.48% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.48% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 833 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "gloom": cast a gloom over ♦ cast a gloom over smb. ♦ foretell gloom. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "gloom": gloom-merchants, gloom-pamper, gloom-riff. | |
Ending with "gloom": half-gloom. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
june gloom | 62 |
ruby gloom | 48 |
gloom | 26 |
cookie gloom | 13 |
agony despair gloom | 10 |
old man gloom | 7 |
boom doom gloom | 6 |
gloom record | 5 |
doom gloom | 4 |
california gloom june | 4 |
boom doom gloom report | 4 |
clothing gloom ruby | 4 |
angeles gloom june los | 3 |
clown fight gloom warrior who | 3 |
2003 gloom june | 3 |
gloom picture ruby | 2 |
san diego june gloom | 2 |
gloom pokemon | 2 |
amiga gloom | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "gloom"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | bedroefdheid (grief, sadness, sorrow). (various references) | |
Albanian | trishtim (damp, doldrums, low spirits, melancholy, misery, mope, sadness), pamje e ngrysur, mërzi (aridity, blackness, boredom, depression, drag, dumps, ennui, flatness, mood, spleen, tedium, weariness), errësirë (murk). (various references) | |
Arabic | كآبة (bleakness, damp, dejection, depression, desolation, despondency, dreariness, gauntness, gloominess, grief, low spirits, melancholy, moodiness, mope, sadness, sombreness, sorrow, spleen), مكان مظلم (dark, darkness), غم (anguish, chagrin, grief, melancholy, oppress, oppression, pique, soreness, sorrow), حزن (afflict, aggrieve, anger, bale, be sorrowful, be sorry, cloud, crack, darken, depress, depression, distress, doldrums, grief, grieve, gripe, heartache, melancholy, pain, sadden, sadness, sadness pain, sorrow), عبس (darken, frown, grow dark, lour, scowl, sulk), إكتأب (ache, brood, darken), إغتم (deject), ظلم (abuse, aggrieve, darken, eclipse, extortion, grind, grow dark, inequality, inequity, iniquity, injustice, oppress, oppression, shadow, tyrannize, unfairness, wrong), ظلام (blackness, dark, gloominess, mirk, murk, night, obscurity, sadness, shade). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | мрачност (bleakness, gloominess, wintriness), мрачно настроение (black dog, dumps, sullens), мрак (dark, darkness, mirk, murk, night, obscurity, opacity, opaqueness, shades, shadows, the opaque). (various references) | |
Chinese | 幽暗 . (various references) | |
Czech | zádumèivost (dejection), trudnomyslnost, tma (dark), smutek (chill, grief, misery, mourning, sables, sadness, unhappiness), pochmurná nálada, melancholie (blues, despondency, dumps, melancholy), šero (dimness, dusk, duskiness, owl-light, twilight). (various references) | |
Dutch | zwaarmoedigheid (dejection, depression, ill humor, ill humour, melancholy), weemoed (dejection, depression, melancholy), troosteloosheid, somberheid (grief, sadness, sorrow), naargeestigheid, mistroostigheid (grief, sadness, sorrow), melancholie (dejection, depression, melancholy), droefgeestigheid (dejection, depression, melancholy), bedroefdheid (sadness, sorrow). (various references) | |
Farsi | ملالت (Boredom, Ennui, Humdrum, Tedium), تیره کردن (Blur, Dark, Dim, Fog, Mud, Obscure, Overcast, Shade, Tarnish), تیرگی (Blur, Fog, Muddle, Obscurity), تاریکی افسرده کننده , تاریکی (Night, Umbrage), تاریک کردن (Dark, Obscure, Overshadow), عبوس بودن , افسرده شدن (Dampen, Languish, Sadden), افسردگی (Dejection, Depression, Doldrums, Freeze, Melancholia, Oppression), دلتنگ بودن , دل تنگی . (various references) | |
Finnish | synkkyys (bleakness, dreariness, melancholy). (various references) | |
French | mélancolie (gloominess). (various references) | |
German | trübsinn (melancholy). (various references) | |
Greek | κατήφεια (dejection, dumps, gloominess, melancholy, moodiness, mopishness, pensiveness), σκότοσ (dark, darkness, dinginess, mirk, murk, obscurity), σκοτεινιά, ζοφώ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מעצב (dejection, depression, melancholy, sorrow), יגון (agony, desolation, grief, sadness, sorrow), קדרות (bleakness, darkness, duskiness, gauntness, murk, sombreness), עלטה (darkness, murk), עפתה (darkness), עננה (cloudling, clouds, obscurity), אפלוליות (dimness, duskiness), דכדוך (chagrin, dejection, depression, dismay, gloominess, low spirits, moodiness, spleen), נכאים (depression, grief, sadness). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szomorúság (grief, mournfulness, sadness, sorrow, woe), sötétség (murk, obscurity, sombreness), mélabú (hyp), lehangoltság (damp, dejectedness), komor hangulat (black mood), homály (obscurity, dimness, dimwit, murk, shades), gyászos hangulat. (various references) | |
Indonesian | suram (bleak, dim, dismal, dreary, grim), kemuraman (dejection). (various references) | |
Italian | tristezza (sadness, sorrow), tenebre (darkness, murk), penombra (Penumbra), oscurità (darkness, murk, dark, murkiness), malinconia (hump, melancholia, melancholiness, melancholy, miserable, pensiveness, sadness, somberness, sombreness, spleen), buio (dark, bleak, dismal, dreary). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 憂鬱 (dejection, depression, melancholy), 憂愁 (grief, melancholy). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きうつ (depression, mental depression), うさ (melancholy), ふけいき (business recession, cheerlessness, depression, hard times, sullenness), かげり (shade, shadow or cloud), いんうつ (melancholy), いんえい (impression of a seal, shading, shadow), いんき (melancholy), めいあん (good idea, light and darkness, light and shade, shade), あんうつ (melancholy), あんえい (shadow), ゆうしゅう (deep contemplation, excellence, grief, imprisonment, melancholy, perfection, superiority, the multitudes, the people), ゆうしょく (anxious look, assisting at dinner, colored, dining with a superior, dinner, evening meal, holding a job, knowlegeable, learned, living in idleness, melancholy air, traces of sorrow, well-versed in usages or practices of the court or military households), ゆううつ (dejection, depression, melancholy), ちんうつ (depression, melancholy). (various references) | |
Manx | grouwid (dejection, ghastliness, gloominess, glumness, grimness), grooid (gloominess), groamid (blues, cheerlessness, dejection, disagreeableness, gloominess, glumness, grimness, ill temper, joylessness, moodiness, moping, moroseness, sombreness, sternness, sullenness), dullyr (dim, dimness, dingy, dusky, fuzzy, gloomy, lowering, muzzy, opaque), burgeeaght (darkness, gloominess). (various references) | |
Norwegian | tungsinn, halvmørke. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oomglay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tristeza (sadness, sorrow), trevas (dark, darkness, mirk, murk, night, obscurity, opacity), tornar escuro, pessimismo (pessimism), obscuridade (blackness, dimmer, dimness, duskiness, obscurity, opacity, shade), obscurecer (befog, blot, blur, cloud, darken, dim, dusk, fog, haze, lour, obfuscate, obscure, overcast, overshadow, sadden, shadow, thicken), melancolia (melancholy), escuridão (darkness), escurecer (cloud, darken, darkle, dim, dusk, overcloud), entristecer (sadden), ensombrear. (various references) | |
Romanian | umbrã (cloud, dark, ghost, shade, shading, shadow), tristeţe (blue, damp, dejection, depression, dullness, heaviness, melancholy, mourning, sadness), se înnora (cloud, lour), posomorî (dull, overcast), obscuritate (darkness, gloominess, haze, murk, obscurity), melancolie (blue devils, gloominess, hip, melancholia, melancholy, sadness, spleen), jale (dejection, despair, grief, groans, mourning, sage, sorrow, wailing, woe), beznã (dark, midnight, night, obscurity), întunecime (blackness, darkness, dimness, dusk, gloominess, murkiness), întuneca (bedim, cloud, darken, dim, muddy, obfuscate, obscure, overcloud, overshadow, sadden, tarnish). (various references) | |
Russian | мрак (mirk). (various references) | |
Scottish | gruaim (melancholy, sullenness, surly look), smalan (melancholy), mùig (cloudiness, frown, surliness), fulbh, duaichneachd (ugliness, wanness). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sumornost (bleakness, duskiness, gloominess). (various references) | |
Spanish | oscuridad (blackness, darkness, obscurity). (various references) | |
Swedish | mörker (darkness, blackness, murk), dysterhet (melancholy). (various references) | |
Turkish | sıkıntılı bakış, sıkıntı (adversity, agitation, annoyance, anxiety, bore, boredom, bother, botheration, difficulty, dire straits, discomfort, distress, doldrums, draft, embarrassment, famine, fear, fret, gloominess, grayness, greyness, groan, hardship, heebie-jeebies, inconvenience, incubus, infliction, load, megrims, mopes, nuisance, oppression, pill, pip, pressure, rigor, rigour, rock, scrape, Strait, straits, stringency, tedium, the megrims, toil, toils, tribulation, trouble, vexation, weight, willies), kasvet (cheerlessness, depression, doldrums, dolefulness, dreariness, gloominess, heaviness, heebie-jeebies, murk, somberness, sombreness, sullenness), kararma (blackout, fade out, nigrescence, obscuration, tarnishing), karanlık (clouded, dark, darkling, darkness, deep, deepness, dun, dusky, foggy, funny, funny peculiar, gloominess, gloomy, inkiness, murk, murky, night, obscuration, obscure, obscurity, pitchy, shadow, shadowy, shady, somber, somberness, sombre, sombreness, tenebrous, unlit), hüzün çökme, hüzün (blues, doldrums, dole, dolefulness, dreariness, gloominess, melancholy, ruefulness, sadness, shadow, somberness, sombreness, spleen), belirsizlik (ambiguity, dark, doubtfulness, dreaminess, dreariness, drift, dubiousness, equivocalness, fogginess, fuzziness, generality, haze, haziness, if, incalculability, indefiniteness, indistinctness, laxity, laxness, limbo, suspense, troubled waters, twilight world, twilight zone, uncertainty, vagueness). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | іпохондрик (atrabilarian, hypochondriac, splenetic, valetudinarian), хмаритися (cloud, lour, overcast), темрява (dark, darkness, mirk, murk, night, nigritude, obscure, obscureness, obscurity, opaque), засмучуватися (ail, be grieved, shadow), похмурість (darkness, dreariness, greyness). (various references) | |
Welsh | gwyll (darkness), prudd-der (sadness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | caliga, caligine, caliginem, caliginis, caligo, nobe, nube, nubem, nubes, nubibus, nubicula, nubis, nubium, nubs, seni, seniorum, senium, tenebrae, tenebrarum, tenebras, tenebris, vasseni. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "gloom": gloomed, gloomful, gloomier, gloomiest, gloomily, gloominess, gloominesses, glooming, gloomings, glooms, gloomy. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "gloom": begloom. (additional references) | |
Words containing "gloom": begloomed, beglooming, beglooms. (additional references) | |
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"Gloom" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ghom, glaim, gleo, glio, gliom, glo, gloak, gloan, gloc, glocoma, Glocon, gloem, gloin, glok, glomb, Glomo, glon, gloo, gloon, gloop, glooz, glox, gluma, glumm, gluom, Golgo, golom, Golomb, golop, golum, Gomov, goom, iglom, lgium, lloom, Ngolo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "gloom" (pronounced gluw"m) |
| 3 | -l uw" m | abloom, bloom, Blume, plume, flume, loom. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-l-m-o-o" | |
-1 letter: glom, logo, loom, mool. | |
-2 letters: goo, log, loo, mog, mol, moo. | |
-3 letters: go, lo, mo, om. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-l-m-o-o" | |
+1 letter: glooms, gloomy, mongol. | |
+2 letters: begloom, gloomed, homolog, legroom, looming, mongols, monolog, myology. | |
+3 letters: beglooms, blooming, gemology, gloomful, gloomier, gloomily, glooming, glowworm, hologamy, hologram, homologs, homology, legrooms, logogram, logomach, longsome, menology, misology, mixology, monoglot, monologs, monology, mycology, myologic, nomology, oligomer, pomology, zymology. | |
+4 letters: begloomed, biologism, cosmology, etymology, gemmology, glamorous, gloomiest, gloomings, glowworms, goalmouth, grillroom, holograms, homologue, hymnology, imbroglio, lagomorph, limnology, lognormal, logograms, logomachs, logomachy, mesogloea, metrology, mongolism, mongoloid, monoglots, monologue, monthlong, moonlight, museology, myoglobin, myologies, mythology, neologism, oligomers, polygonum, semiology, symbology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
