brooding

adjective

brood·​ing ˈbrü-diŋ 

1

: moodily or sullenly thoughtful or serious

a brooding genius

a brooding, embittered man

2

: darkly somber

a brooding landscape

a quiet, brooding atmosphere

… brooding, violent images reminiscent of … film noir …

—Tracy Hopkins

broodingly adverb

a broodingly handsome actor

Gardner gazes broodingly at the camera …

—Kathleen Murphy

Examples of brooding in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After the brooding introspection of The Tortured Poets Department, The Life of a Showgirl is especially fitting, being the balancing act of it all — marrying the private musings of the poet with the vivacious presence of the showgirl. —Valerie Mesa, People.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Nolan produced the flick, and with Zack Snyder at the helm, Man of Steel brought us a more brooding, haunted Kryptonian strongman seemingly destined to wander the world a shell of himself. —Devan Coggan, EW.com, 3 Aug. 2025

All in all, his brooding and secretive energy is seemingly the same as the scorpion's. —Lisa Stardust, People.com, 19 July 2025

And the movie has a real sweetness and sincerity to it, determined to give family audiences a superhero flick that’s not all ponderous brooding and dark origin stories. —Tim Grierson, Vulture, 11 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for brooding

• feuding
• alluding
• colluding
• concluding
• deluding
• denuding
• eluding
• excluding
• extruding
• exuding
• including
• intruding