sullen

adjective

sul·​len ˈsə-lən 

1

a

: gloomily or resentfully silent or repressed

a sullen crowd

b

: suggesting a sullen state : lowering

a sullen countenance

2

: dull or somber in sound or color

3

: dismal, gloomy

a sullen morning

4

: moving sluggishly

a sullen river

sullenly adverb

sullenness

ˈsə-lə(n)-nəs 

noun

Synonyms

• somber
• bleak
• lonely
• depressive
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• desolate
• solemn
• murky
• lonesome
• gray
• grey
• cold
• morbid
• blue
• morose
• depressed
• miserable
• black

Choose the Right Synonym for sullen

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 sullen in a Sentence

Economy got you down? Provocateur Ehrenreich … says: Don't try cheering yourself up.  … Her sharp, funny critique finds that sunny types don't necessarily live longer or better than grumps. Besides, can you really get rid of all negativity in your life? "It is not so easy," she notes, "to abandon the whiny toddler or the sullen teenager." —Richard Eisenberg, People, 26 Oct. 2009

The skies grew sullen and the air chillier, but it wasn't until the third day that the snow came. —Bill Bryson, A Walk In The Woods, 1999

Despite angry alumni calls and sullen students protests—including the cancellation of all fraternity parties at the school's annual Winter Carnival—the faculty unanimously voted in favor of the college's goal to make fraternities and sororities substantially coed, along with developing new social alternatives for its 4,300 undergraduates. —Anita Hamilton, Time, 1 Mar. 1999

sullen skies that matched our mood on the day of the funeral

sullen and bored at his in-laws' house, he couldn't wait for the holidays to end

Recent Examples on the Web

The reflection of my withered face, with deep sullen eyes, blurs behind raindrops sliding down the glass. —Literary Hub, 11 July 2025

My partner came home from work to find a sullen child whimpering in his room. —Jann Blackstone, Chicago Tribune, 10 June 2025

Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed in the blackest of the heath for her; out of a sullen hollow in a livid hillside her mind could make an Eden. —Erik Pedersen, Oc Register, 6 June 2025

When this long, difficult, rewarding and validating Minnesota Timberwolves season came to a crashing halt Wednesday in Oklahoma City, a sullen group of players and coaches filed into the locker room to come to grips with it all. —Jon Krawczynski, New York Times, 30 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English solein solitary, from Anglo-French sulein, solain, perhaps from sol, soul single, sole + -ain after Old French soltain solitary, private, from Late Latin solitaneus, ultimately from Latin solus alone

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for sullen

• ghrelin
• mullen

Kids Definition

sullen

adjective

sul·​len ˈsəl-ən 

1

a

: gloomily or resentfully silent : not sociable

b

: suggesting a sullen state

sullen refusal

2

: dull in sound or color

3

: dismal sense 1, gloomy

a sullen sky

sullenly adverb

sullenness

ˈsəl-ən-(n)əs 

noun