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as in sad
feeling unhappiness how can you be glum after such a great day?

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Synonym Chooser

How is the word glum different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of glum are crabbed, gloomy, morose, saturnine, sulky, sullen, and surly. While all these words mean "showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood," glum suggests a silent dispiritedness.

a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat

When is crabbed a more appropriate choice than glum?

Although the words crabbed and glum have much in common, crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner.

the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster

When can gloomy be used instead of glum?

In some situations, the words gloomy and glum are roughly equivalent. However, gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness.

a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news

How do morose and glum relate to one another?

Morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy.

morose job seekers who are inured to rejection

When might saturnine be a better fit than glum?

While the synonyms saturnine and glum are close in meaning, saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition.

a saturnine cynic always finding fault

When is it sensible to use sulky instead of glum?

The words sulky and glum can be used in similar contexts, but sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness.

grew sulky after every spat

When would sullen be a good substitute for glum?

The meanings of sullen and glum largely overlap; however, sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable.

remained sullen amid the festivities

When could surly be used to replace glum?

The synonyms surly and glum are sometimes interchangeable, but surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner.

a typical surly teenager

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of glum After failing to win their third straight Super Bowl, things seemed a bit glum, but some decent moves have been made by the team so far. Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 20 Mar. 2025 But in a season filled with glum for the Sixers, Guerschon Yabusele has been a bright spot. Bobby Krivitsky, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2025 Imagine, then, my discontent on learning of a recent U.K. court decision that underscores our glum reality. Robert Goulder, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025 Spencer Platt | Getty Images Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today The U.S. consumer hasn’t felt so glum about the economy since November 2022, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 17 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for glum
Recent Examples of Synonyms for glum
Adjective
  • At the same time, others who attended this year’s California Democratic Party Convention dismissed any notion that the future of the Democratic Party is bleak.
    Linh Tat, Oc Register, 31 May 2025
  • The early options on the GOP side are bleak: Neither Donalds nor Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife who’s said to be interested in succeeding him, is the moderate Florida so desperately needs now.
    Orlando Sentinel, The Orlando Sentinel, 30 May 2025
Adjective
  • Banks: There’s a reason why the theater [symbol] is a happy face/sad face.
    Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2025
  • To some, this may sound bizarre, laughable, or even just plain sad.
    Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 June 2025
Adjective
  • The incident caused a somber scene near home plate, as Yankees teammates, coaches and personnel huddled around the always-affable 26-year-old before an ambulance took him off the field and to a nearby hospital.
    Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 5 June 2025
  • The somber financial picture leaves the city caught between cutting services to the public and finding a way to raise money.
    Luis Melecio-Zambrano, Mercury News, 5 June 2025
Adjective
  • The results: enrollees had less financial stress and were less likely to be depressed, but there was no difference in their physical health.
    John C. Goodman, Forbes.com, 3 June 2025
  • Even at a time when film and TV production in Southern California is depressed, A-listers want to spend their time between takes in plush surroundings.
    William Earl, Variety, 27 May 2025
Adjective
  • Cass fulfills his obligations in a particularly irritable way.
    Jesse Hassenger, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2025
  • One person’s fatigue is another’s back pain, is another’s migraine or irritable bowel, or long Covid, and so on.
    Jessica DuLong, CNN Money, 11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • As found in the survey, adults who experience daily loneliness are nearly five times more likely to rate their current life poorly compared to those who aren’t lonely.
    Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 9 June 2025
  • Skeletal branches created a cathedral over the lonely vehicle where the 64-year-old man had breathed his last, the winter-gray river placid in the background behind a ramble of fences.
    Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2025
Adjective
  • Additionally, the more fiscally conservative Senate is increasingly unhappy with the cost of the bill, which is estimated to add $3.1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
    Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 10 June 2025
  • Trump is unhappy with Musk’s outburst, but Republicans are downplaying the effect on their agenda bill Trump confirmed their relationship has soured, with Musk repeatedly blasting the president’s sweeping domestic agenda bill in recent days and a public fight on social media on Thursday.
    Matt Egan, CNN Money, 6 June 2025
Adjective
  • When this long, difficult, rewarding and validating Minnesota Timberwolves season came to a crashing halt Wednesday in Oklahoma City, a sullen group of players and coaches filed into the locker room to come to grips with it all.
    Jon Krawczynski, New York Times, 30 May 2025
  • Read Next: The Best Bass Flies As the bug lay silent on the water, a sullen chug echoed out of the darkness and Larry’s rod, silhouetted against the night sky, sprang into a dancing arc.
    Ted Janes, Outdoor Life, 29 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Glum.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/glum. Accessed 14 Jun. 2025.

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