1
as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
it was a drear morning in January when I went to take my driving test
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in sad
causing unhappiness
a barren and drear existence in a remote village
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in moroseness
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Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of drear
Lynne Sullivan, The Providence Journal, 14 Mar. 2026
Adjective
As the world begins to emerge from the drear of winter, kids especially are looking to get out of the house.
—Lynne Sullivan, The Providence Journal, 14 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drear
Adjective
-
This year, though, is things are looking bleak.—
Alan Gionet,
CBS News,
4 June 2026
-
Charli and preeminent pop divas Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande are releasing some of the bleakest music of their careers just in time for summer, the traditional season for party anthems and celebratory bangers.—
Scottie Andrew,
CNN Money,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
The other six ascended to the highest office in the land as a result of the dysfunction that has made Peru a punch line in political-science circles, a sad story of ungovernability played on a loop.—
Daniel Alarcón,
New Yorker,
4 June 2026
-
There’s a one-note quality to the film’s comedy that grows steadily, even deliberately, more abrasive over two hours, but the sad, brash, gradually shrinking bigness of the personalities at its center holds your attention.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
4 June 2026
Adjective
-
Its trio, a lonely fox-deer, an axolotl apprentice healer and a red panda Viking, travel through a darkening natural world as the series folds identity, belonging and environmental crisis.—
Callum McLennan,
Variety,
1 June 2026
-
Brunson is hardly a lonely talent.—
David Remnick,
New Yorker,
30 May 2026
Adjective
-
Almost a year out to sea is very depressing.—
Steve Walsh,
NPR,
23 May 2026
-
Some sendoffs are mundane; others are downright depressing.—
Michael Silver,
New York Times,
21 May 2026
Noun
-
White’s actorly presence comes through in his vocal performance, lending the beleaguered fighter a sense of depressed world-weariness and poignant ennui.—
Katie Walsh,
Twin Cities,
23 May 2026
-
Made when Dunham was in her early 20s, the film is a deadly accurate portrait of post-collegiate ennui, shot partly in her parents’ NYC apartment, and remains fresh and startlingly insightful.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
22 May 2026
Adjective
-
If the second section presents the diagnosis, then in the footnote to Howl Ginsberg writes a prescription, because if we’re oppressed by a dark faith then the only antidote is a different one.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 June 2026
-
Villains could hide in the giant banyan tree or lurk in the spookily dark new flotation room; a fight scene might involve someone crashing down the waterfall-wall in the centre of the wellness centre.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
By then, Thomsen says, the public perception had shifted from regarding it as tough and controversial to seeing it as desperate and pathetic.—
Harmeet Kaur,
CNN Money,
28 May 2026
-
The plan involved discovering a long lost princess, hopping on a plane to London, breaking into a museum store room, and enlisting the help of a very pathetic historian.—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
22 May 2026
Noun
-
There is a compounding effect to showing up, tolerating the tedium and choosing the harder path repeatedly.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2026
-
There is a tedium, however, to scrolling through a bunch of stuff that isn’t real, that maybe isn’t even pretending to be real, all for the sake of lying for no reason.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
30 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Drear.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drear. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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