as in chill
an uncomfortable degree of coolness
the morning bleakness prompted me to get a fire going
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Recent Examples of bleakness
Banishing all of that bleakness, Hurts rolled right on third-and-goal and fit a 15-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Dallas Goedert between a layer of multiple defenders.
—
Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2025
The long-view shtick works for a while, but the bleakness gets exhausting.
—Sam Lipsyte, Curbed, 15 Dec. 2025
The filmmaker instead evokes his earlier work—namely Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer—combining the mannered, hermetic bleakness of those tales with the befuddled existentialism of a Samuel Beckett play.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2025
Wear it for snowy weekend strolls, festive city breaks, Christmas morning outings and all the way up until the icy bleakness of mid-March.
—Ellie Davis, Vogue, 28 Oct. 2025
The film, whose bleakness served as an inspiration for Nebraska, is based on the story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, teenage lovers who committed a series of murders in 1958.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
In Pynchon’s best works, his bleakness is brightened, in both senses—illuminated and made lighter—by the sweep of his vision and his affection for his fallible, foolhardy, well-meaning, wildly outmatched main characters.
—Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
The campaign has already exceeded its goal by more than $38,000 dollars, with six days to go, proving no amount of dystopian bleakness will deter true Black Mirror fans.
—Leslie Katz, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
While The Road confronts us with the bleakness of planetary destruction, the sensory deprivation chamber in which Harpman holds her characters (and, therefore, readers) leaves no choice but to travel deep into our bodies.
—Hazlitt, 23 Oct. 2024
Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2025
The long-view shtick works for a while, but the bleakness gets exhausting.
—Sam Lipsyte, Curbed, 15 Dec. 2025
The filmmaker instead evokes his earlier work—namely Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer—combining the mannered, hermetic bleakness of those tales with the befuddled existentialism of a Samuel Beckett play.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2025
Wear it for snowy weekend strolls, festive city breaks, Christmas morning outings and all the way up until the icy bleakness of mid-March.
—Ellie Davis, Vogue, 28 Oct. 2025
The film, whose bleakness served as an inspiration for Nebraska, is based on the story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, teenage lovers who committed a series of murders in 1958.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
In Pynchon’s best works, his bleakness is brightened, in both senses—illuminated and made lighter—by the sweep of his vision and his affection for his fallible, foolhardy, well-meaning, wildly outmatched main characters.
—Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
The campaign has already exceeded its goal by more than $38,000 dollars, with six days to go, proving no amount of dystopian bleakness will deter true Black Mirror fans.
—Leslie Katz, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
While The Road confronts us with the bleakness of planetary destruction, the sensory deprivation chamber in which Harpman holds her characters (and, therefore, readers) leaves no choice but to travel deep into our bodies.
—Hazlitt, 23 Oct. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bleakness
Noun
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Despite a chill in the air on Saturday night, the energy outside the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood was electric as crowds lined up along Sunset Boulevard, hoping for a glimpse of the stars arriving at Vanity Fair and Amazon MGM Studios' third annual pre-Golden Globes party.—
Rachel Marlowe,
Vanity Fair,
11 Jan. 2026
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And with the new year upon us and a biting chill in the air, now is the ideal time to prepare for the inevitable clutter caused by our hodgepodge of gardening tools.—
Caley Sturgill,
Southern Living,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Astringent Hachiya persimmons must fully soften at room temperature before eating because chilling too early locks in bitterness.—
Randi Gollin,
Martha Stewart,
11 Jan. 2026
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As oblivion approached, with all its attendant possibilities of panic or bitterness, Bowie summoned the generosity to evoke the ordeal of one prematurely dying man while also thinking and creating at the no less vast scale of life itself.—
Armin Rosen,
The Washington Examiner,
9 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bleakness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bleakness. Accessed 21 Jan. 2026.
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