as in gruffness
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Recent Examples of dourness
April’s showers have brought not flowers to the Reds, but dourness.
—
C. Trent Rosecrans,
New York Times,
7 May 2026
With its single Xenomorph antagonist, its cramped environment, and its fairly helpless cast of characters, a video-game adaptation sounds like an exercise in pure dourness.
—
Daniel Dockery,
Vulture,
22 Sep. 2025
But the music constantly resists her dourness.
—
Ew Staff Published,
EW.com,
14 Aug. 2025
C. Trent Rosecrans,
New York Times,
7 May 2026
With its single Xenomorph antagonist, its cramped environment, and its fairly helpless cast of characters, a video-game adaptation sounds like an exercise in pure dourness.
—
Daniel Dockery,
Vulture,
22 Sep. 2025
But the music constantly resists her dourness.
—
Ew Staff Published,
EW.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dourness
Noun
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Mackay and Turner are both excellent, two movie stars who seem totally game to be asked to move with real gruffness.
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But then Popper smiled and the arrival of opening day momentarily mellowed his gruffness.
Noun
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China has gained, not suffered, from this obduracy.
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Related: ‘Neglected diseases’ are anything but neglected by the billion-plus people living with them One possible reason for this obduracy is that noma begins as a dental disease, and dental diseases have long been underappreciated global health concerns.
Noun
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The jury further determined that the crimes involved a threat of great bodily harm and demonstrated a high degree of cruelty, viciousness or callousness, the district attorney's office said.
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Hantz was turning callousness into spectacle and many viewers were hungry for it.
Cite this Entry
“Dourness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dourness. Accessed 4 Jul. 2026.
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