1
as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
the usual glum waiting room at the tax collector's office a cold, glum day
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in sad
feeling unhappiness
how can you be glum after such a great day?
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in pouting
given to or displaying a resentful silence and often irritability
a chronically glum and pouting child
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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
The brood includes an addled patriarch who often forgets to wear pants, an observant matriarch and, best of all, a glum but handsome son (Charlie Anson).
—
Randy Myers, Mercury News, 22 May 2025
Trout expresses optimism about quick return Angels star outfielder Mike Trout was in a jovial mood Friday, a far cry from the understandably glum tenor of his normal injury interviews.
—Sam Blum, New York Times, 3 May 2025
The New York Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations data released Monday added more glum outlooks to the growing pile of sour sentiment readings from Americans at a time when unpredictable federal policies have caused uncertainty and recession fears to spike.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 14 Apr. 2025
Losses weren’t quite as dire as on Thursday for media and tech stocks, but the morning still signaled a glum end to a turbulent week.
—Dade Hayes, Deadline, 4 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for glum
Randy Myers, Mercury News, 22 May 2025
Trout expresses optimism about quick return Angels star outfielder Mike Trout was in a jovial mood Friday, a far cry from the understandably glum tenor of his normal injury interviews.
—Sam Blum, New York Times, 3 May 2025
The New York Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations data released Monday added more glum outlooks to the growing pile of sour sentiment readings from Americans at a time when unpredictable federal policies have caused uncertainty and recession fears to spike.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 14 Apr. 2025
Losses weren’t quite as dire as on Thursday for media and tech stocks, but the morning still signaled a glum end to a turbulent week.
—Dade Hayes, Deadline, 4 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for glum
Recent Examples of Synonyms for glum
Adjective
-
Yes, there are good reasons to question NASA's long-term plans for the Artemis lunar program—the woeful cost of the Space Launch System rocket, the complexity of new commercial landers, and a bleak budget outlook.—
Stephen Clark,
ArsTechnica,
12 Sep. 2025
-
That's rather bleak, while Charlie Sheen's life has just been bonkers.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
This one is trickier and sadder to think about.—
Brian Welk,
IndieWire,
12 Sep. 2025
-
Composite image created by Newsweek shows two older people looking worried and a piggy bank with a sad face on its side.—
Aliss Higham,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Chapple, the late Queen’s beekeeper, went first to Clarence House and then Buckingham Palace to perform his somber duty of telling the bees, a centuries-old custom of informing the bees when their owner has died.—
Elizabeth Bass Parman,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
-
News voices in the 1970's tended to be somber, accent-less, and almost exclusively male.—
Scott Simon,
NPR,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Unemployment has stayed relatively low in part because of dampened demand for workers as well as a depressed supply (people aging out of the workforce as well as reductions in immigrant workers).—
Alicia Wallace,
CNN Money,
6 Sep. 2025
-
This time producer Brad Ingelsby tapped Mark Ruffalo as a depressed and traumatized FBI agent leading a task force investigating a series of home invasions targeting drug dens in the area.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
He was adopted two weeks later, but after 18 months in his home, Scoob developed a painful skin condition that caused his ears to bleed and left him extremely irritable.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Sep. 2025
-
Instead, Helen is allowed to be irritable and anti-social, chain-smoking and snappish, without the filmmaker casting judgment.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
His work in those early days bears little resemblance to the crystalline large-format portraits of lonely American landscapes that would come to define his career.—
Chris Wiley,
New Yorker,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Quarterback is an isolating and lonely position, despite entire infrastructures reverse-engineered in service of those who play it, to say nothing of the elaborate playbooks created for them.—
Seth Wickersham,
The Atlantic,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
My research team works hard to keep the email addresses up to date, but executives keep changing their addresses to avoid having to deal with unhappy customers.—
Christopher Elliott,
Mercury News,
10 Sep. 2025
-
But few seemed to leave unhappy.—
Jonathan Hawkins,
CNN Money,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Mark, with his fighting regimen, is a lot to handle, but so is Dawn, who’s a rather sullen party-girl princess.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
1 Sep. 2025
-
The President is a sullen bore, but Servillo’s performance is always a hair less moribund than the movie around it, and held tight by the sincerity of his ambivalence.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
27 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Glum.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/glum. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share