doomer
noun
an extreme pessimist
What does doomer mean?
Doomer refers to a person who is extremely pessimistic, whether in general or regarding a particular issue (such as AI technology or the climate), often to the point that they believe nothing can be done and that efforts to solve problems are futile.
Examples of doomer
Worries about overpopulation aren’t only about the environment. Overpopulation doomers like Thomas Robert Malthus in the 18th century and Ehrlich in the 20th warned of famine and scarcity. But on every continent, more and better food is available per person than when humanity numbered half as many. In every country, life expectancy now is greater than 50 years ago.
—Michael Geruso and Dean Spears, The New York Times, 29 June 2025
I swear half of doomers just want to avoid responsibility for helping find solutions.
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—GPT-4’s release inspired several open letters signed by AI researchers and tech executives warning of potential extinction-level risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence. One of the letters, reminiscent of fears about nuclear weapons or pandemics, called for a global pause on AI development. Around the same time, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified of AI dangers in front of the US Senate. A year later, California legislator Scott Wiener proposed a bill to regulate AI, backed by prominent figures that critics labeled as “AI doomers”—those who feared the uncontrolled progression of machine intelligence.
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Where does doomer come from?
Our Unabridged dictionary defines two older senses of doomer. The first refers to someone who pronounces a legal sentence, such as a judge (the oldest senses of doom in English refer to statutes, laws, judgments, and etc.). The second is “a prognosticator of doom,” someone who foretells bad outcomes for people, as by reading signs and omens (by the 15th century doom was also being used to mean “destiny,” and usually “unhappy destiny”):
Fond Ate, doomer of bad-boding fates,
That wraps proud fortune in thy snaky locks,
Didst thou inchant my birth-day with such stars,
As lighten’d mischief from their infancy?
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Today’s doomer also incorporates meanings of doom including “judgment day” and “death or ruin” to refer to someone who believes all is doomed—that is, certain to fail or be destroyed. Its use has probably also been influenced by such as coinages as boomer, as in OK boomer, and Zoomer.
How is doomer used?
Doomer tends to be used negatively for someone who is seen as having given up on fixing things, or who is overly pessimistic about something that isn’t entirely bad or entirely hopeless. There is also the related noun doomerism, referring to the philosophical outlook of doomers.
“I talk about three different kinds of doomerism. One is the despair that arises from misunderstanding the science and thinking we’re absolutely on the path to collapse within 20 or 30 years, no matter what we do. That is not true. Second, there’s a kind of nihilistic position taken by people who suggest they are the only ones who can look at the harsh truth. I have disdain for that position. Finally, there’s the doomerism that comes from political frustration, from believing that people who have power are just happy to burn the world down. And that to me is the most reasonable kind of doomerism. To address that kind of doomerism, you need to say: ‘Yes, this is scary as hell. But we must have courage and turn our fear into action by talking about climate change with others, by calling our elected officials on a regular basis, by demanding our workplaces put their money where their mouth is.’”
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