as in unhappy
feeling unhappiness
was utterly joyless after his bitter divorce
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Recent Examples of joyless
Of course, in Louisiana, with its cheap, abundant, and locally refined gasoline, many civilians drive these behemoths, too, so at school pickups, organizers asked parents to roll their windows down and blast music, something that joyless agents would never do.
—
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
If Panahi’s interview had been a joyless commiseration-fest, that would have been more than acceptable.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
Leadership sets the tone, and right now that tone feels tense and joyless.
—Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2026
The previous decade included the organizational mayhem of Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and the drudgery of Tokyo in 2020, a joyless experience that unfolded in empty venues of a city that had no interest in staging the event as Japan and the rest of the world tried to emerge from the scourge of COVID-19.
—Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
Pills even out her emotions but her brain is joyless.
—Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 11 Jan. 2026
By comparison—and in contrast to its buoyant first season—Stranger Things has devolved into a joyless, uninspired, unidirectional slog.
—Judy Berman, Time, 26 Dec. 2025
The joyless union is being pushed by Lord and Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston) so that the wealth stays in the family.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 3 Dec. 2025
The idea propagated by Saturday Night Live skits and sitcom one-liners that Lilith Fair was a misandrist showcase for joyless, hormonal angst was totally alien to accounts of what being there actually felt like.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 30 Sep. 2025
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
If Panahi’s interview had been a joyless commiseration-fest, that would have been more than acceptable.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
Leadership sets the tone, and right now that tone feels tense and joyless.
—Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2026
The previous decade included the organizational mayhem of Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and the drudgery of Tokyo in 2020, a joyless experience that unfolded in empty venues of a city that had no interest in staging the event as Japan and the rest of the world tried to emerge from the scourge of COVID-19.
—Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
Pills even out her emotions but her brain is joyless.
—Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 11 Jan. 2026
By comparison—and in contrast to its buoyant first season—Stranger Things has devolved into a joyless, uninspired, unidirectional slog.
—Judy Berman, Time, 26 Dec. 2025
The joyless union is being pushed by Lord and Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston) so that the wealth stays in the family.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 3 Dec. 2025
The idea propagated by Saturday Night Live skits and sitcom one-liners that Lilith Fair was a misandrist showcase for joyless, hormonal angst was totally alien to accounts of what being there actually felt like.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 30 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for joyless
Adjective
-
As society gal Rose DeWitt Bukater, Melissa Barrera has freewheeling fun with Kate Winslett’s unhappy bride-to-be character.—
Frank Rizzo,
Variety,
13 Apr. 2026
-
People on my block were unhappy, and block association president was unhappy.—
Jesse Zanger,
CBS News,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
And there is a beautiful human element to it that is kind of, at its core, a little sad.—
Rebecca Alter,
Vulture,
9 Apr. 2026
-
The vlogger Jordan Cheyenne, for one, wrecked her sharenting career by accidentally posting footage of herself coaching her son, who was distraught over the family’s sick puppy, to make a specific kind of sad face for YouTube.—
Jessica Winter,
New Yorker,
7 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The father, Jagdish, told me that one of his children was vomiting and the other had bloody stools; both were depressed.—
Sarah Stillman,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
-
So why are young Americans so depressed about their economic future?—
Idrees Kahloon,
The Atlantic,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Oil prices are once again surging in the wake of war in the Middle East, driving up the cost of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and threatening a return to stagflation — the toxic mix of higher prices and slower growth that made economic life so miserable a half-century ago.—
Paul Wiseman,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Apr. 2026
-
That miserable scoring drought that Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier was mired in earlier all of a sudden seems like a distant memory.—
Kevin Kurz,
New York Times,
12 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
She was implicated in the case, with heartbroken Karadec handling her booking himself.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
7 Apr. 2026
-
Joe heads back downstairs and Irene looks… heartbroken.—
Jordan Hoffman,
Entertainment Weekly,
6 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Its most melancholy scene of all involves Willy Loman, a traveling salesman who has given his unnamed company the best years of his now weary life, walking into the head office only to be humiliated by the callow young man who now runs his company and could not give a damn about him.—
Chris Jones,
New York Daily News,
10 Apr. 2026
-
A lot of the dances turned out to be slightly melancholy.—
Naaman Zhou,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Kawhi Leonard sat out for the Clippers to rest ankle and wrist injuries, while Draymond Green was out for the Warriors with a bad back.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
13 Apr. 2026
-
Was Paul’s effect on history, incalculably large, good or bad on the whole?—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
If enough rank-and-file lawmakers stood as one, challenged their party’s leaders and refused to accept this sorry system, the whole shady mess would grind to a halt.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
11 Apr. 2026
-
Yeah, sports betting or sorry, gambling isn’t the DSM-5.—
Torie Bosch,
STAT,
11 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Joyless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/joyless. Accessed 16 Apr. 2026.
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