glum

adjective

ˈgləm 

glummer; glummest

1

: broodingly morose

became glum when they heard the news

2

: dreary, gloomy

a glum countenance

glumly adverb

glumness noun

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• disconsolate
• dismal
• drear
• dreary
• dreich [chiefly Scottish]
• elegiac
• elegiacal
• forlorn
• funereal
• gloomy
• godforsaken
• gray
• grey
• lonely
• lonesome
• lugubrious
• miserable
• morbid
• morose
• murky
• plutonian
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• solemn
• somber
• sombre
• sullen
• sunless
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• wretched

Choose the Right Synonym for glum

sullen, glum, morose, surly, sulky, crabbed, saturnine, gloomy mean showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood.

sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable.

remained sullen amid the festivities

glum suggests a silent dispiritedness.

a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat

morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy.

morose job seekers who are inured to rejection

surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner.

a typical surly teenager

sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness.

grew sulky after every spat

crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner.

the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster

saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition.

a saturnine cynic always finding fault

gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness.

a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news

Examples of glum in a Sentence

There's no need to look so glum—things will get better soon.

There was a glum silence in the room.

Recent Examples on the Web

Imagine, then, my discontent on learning of a recent U.K. court decision that underscores our glum reality. —Robert Goulder, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025

Spencer Platt | Getty Images Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today The U.S. consumer hasn’t felt so glum about the economy since November 2022, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. —Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 17 Mar. 2025

On the industry side, homebuilders are feeling glum amid tariff talk. —Jasmine Cui, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025

Kyiv launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. —Raja Krishnamoorthi, Newsweek, 13 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

akin to Middle English gloumen to gloom

First Known Use

1547, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for glum

• bum
• chum
• come
• crum
• cum
• drum
• dum
• dumb
• from
• frum
• gum
• hum

Kids Definition

glum

adjective

ˈgləm 

glummer; glummest

1

: sullen sense 1a

2

: seeming gloomy and sad

a glum expression

glumly adverb

glumness noun