Synonyms of darkening

darkening 1 of 2

adjective

as in dark

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

a darkening sky that seemed to match our downcast spirits

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dark
• bleak
• somber
• depressing
• depressive
• lonely
• desolate
• solemn
• gray
• murky
• blue
• cold
• black
• lonesome
• morbid
• miserable
• chill
• gloomy
• depressed
• sullen
• dismal
• cloudy
• wretched
• cheerless
• funereal
• sad
• dreary
• disconsolate
• lugubrious
• oppressive
• saturnine
• dire
• morose
• elegiac
• melancholy
• sepulchral
• forlorn
• glum
• comfortless
• drear
• sunless
• tenebrous
• Cimmerian
• godforsaken
• dim
• dreich
• dull
• unhappy
• negative
• plutonian
• desperate
• tenebrific
• distressing
• mournful
• discouraging
• melancholic
• down
• low
• grim
• menacing
• hopeless
• woebegone
• upsetting
• dejected
• woeful
• distressful
• droopy
• dismaying
• inconsolable
• mirthless
• despondent
• dispiriting
• pessimistic
• sorrowful
• disheartening
• discomfiting
• drab
• lowering
• hangdog
• threatening
• lamentable
• plaintive
• colorless
• dour
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• bright
• friendly
• cheerful
• comforting
• festive
• cheery
• gay
• sunshiny
• cordial
• joyous
• merry
• joyful
• buoyant
• gay
• jolly
• blithe
• mirthful
• encouraging
• optimistic
• hopeful
• cheering
• blithesome
• heartwarming
• jocund
• lighthearted
• lightsome

darkening

2 of 2

verb

present participle of darken

1

as in frowning

to take on a gloomy or forbidding look

his face slowly darkened as we told him the sad news

Synonyms & Similar Words

• frowning
• staring
• lowering
• glaring
• glowering
• scowling
• raging
• glooming
• brooding
• pouting
• steaming
• threatening
• angering
• sulking
• storming
• bristling
• moping
• intimidating
• petting
• fuming
• menacing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• brightening
• lightening
• cheering (up)
• perking (up)

2

as in fading

to grow dark

the sky darkened as a storm moved in

Synonyms & Similar Words

• fading
• blackening
• dimming
• dusking
• closing in
• waning
• blacking out
• glooming
• lowering

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• lighting
• shining
• brightening
• lightening
• glowing
• dawning
• radiating
• beaming

3

as in obscuring

to make dark, dim, or indistinct

years of accumulated grime have darkened the painting until it can barely be seen

Synonyms & Similar Words

• obscuring
• blurring
• blackening
• clouding
• dimming
• overshadowing
• shrouding
• shadowing
• overcasting
• fogging
• misting
• hazing
• beclouding
• shading
• concealing
• hiding
• blearing
• befogging
• dislimning
• overclouding
• covering
• obliterating
• eclipsing
• bedimming
• fuzzing (up)
• masking
• adumbrating
• screening
• camouflaging
• blotting out
• curtaining
• veiling
• disguising
• cloaking

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• brightening
• lightening
• illuminating
• lighting (up)
• revealing
• exposing
• illumining
• uncovering
• unveiling

4

as in marring

to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable

the scandal darkened his otherwise sterling reputation

Synonyms & Similar Words

• marring
• staining
• spoiling
• tainting
• poisoning
• touching
• tarnishing
• blackening
• lowering
• vitiating
• distorting
• degrading
• smearing
• blurring
• blemishing
• discrediting
• corrupting
• clouding
• discoloring
• polluting
• soiling
• smudging
• dirtying
• sullying
• besmirching
• disgracing
• sinking
• shaming
• tarring
• debasing
• perverting
• twisting
• subverting
• dishonoring
• debauching
• cheapening
• coloring
• besmearing
• fouling
• smutting
• demeaning
• smirching
• abasing
• demoralizing
• begriming
• depraving
• bastardizing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• cleansing
• purifying
• elevating
• magnifying
• uplifting
• glorifying
• ennobling
• hallowing
• enshrining
• dignifying

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of darkening

Verb

The title references Black Like Me, white journalist John Howard Griffin’s 1961 nonfiction book about darkening his skin to pass for Black in the Jim Crow South. — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 21 Aug. 2026

During a total eclipse, the moon completely covers the face of the sun, darkening the sky and revealing just the sun’s outer atmosphere called the corona. — Devika Rao, TheWeek, 12 Aug. 2026

Instead of darkening the sky and unveiling the sun's signature circular ring, this time around the moon will only partly cover the sun, giving it a crescent shape, according to NASA. — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 12 Aug. 2026

In locations where the eclipse will occur around sunset, people may see Perseid meteors during totality, the minutes when the moon fully blocks the sun’s light, leaving a fiery ring and temporarily darkening the skies. — Denise Chow, NBC news, 11 Aug. 2026

Severe weather cut power Tuesday in the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana as perilous storms pummeled the region, darkening the sky and carrying extreme wind gusts across state lines. — ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026

The summer sounds of 1966 offered a distraction from darkening clouds of social and political upheaval. — Michael Peregrine, Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 2026

The Hapsburg Inspector General, the equivalent of the food inspector darkening the doorway of a scummy restaurant? — Diana Arterian, Literary Hub, 16 July 2026

Alfred Dreyfus to warn that the ‘demons of antisemitism’ haunting France’s past are again darkening its present. — Masha MacPherson, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2026