tenebrous

ten·e·brous

adjective \ˈte-nə-brəs\

Definition of TENEBROUS

1

: shut off from the light : dark, murky <tenebrous depths>

2

: hard to understand : obscure <a tenebrous affair>

3

: causing gloom

Examples of TENEBROUS

1. <a tenebrous night with no moon>
2. <in the midst of those tenebrous days Thomas Paine penned the immortal words “These are the times that try men's souls”>

Origin of TENEBROUS

Middle English, from Anglo-French tenebreus, from Latin tenebrosus, from tenebrae

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to TENEBROUS

Synonyms

black, caliginous, darkened, darkish, darkling, darksome, dim, dimmed, dusk, dusky, gloomy, lightless, murky, obscure, obscured, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, rayless, somber (or sombre), stygian, tenebrific, dark, unlit

Antonyms

bright, brightened, brilliant, illuminated, illumined, light, lit (or lighted), lightsome, lucent, lucid, luminous

Related Words

crepuscular, twilit; moonless, starless, sunless; cloudy, dull, dulled, lackluster; shadowlike, shadowy, shady; gray (also grey), leaden, pale; beclouded, befogged, clouded, foggy, fuliginous, misty, smoggy, soupy

Near Antonyms

ablaze, agleam, aglitter, alight, beaming, beamy, effulgent, glaring, glowing, incandescent, lambent, radiant, relucent, resplendent, shining, sparkling; ultrabright; glossy, lustrous, shiny; floodlit (also floodlighted), highlighted, spotlighted (or spotlit); moonlit, moony, starlit, sunlit