mirthless

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 mirthless Historically, autocrats are a mirthless bunch. David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025 Splashes of elegance in gravestone carving appear as the mirthless old Puritans die, people get richer, and London goes royal. Brian T. Allen, National Review, 19 July 2025 Why is this one mirthless and artless? Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 29 Jan. 2025 Yet there was a mirthless response from those around him; a realisation there was an element of truth to his chant. Roshane Thomas, The Athletic, 30 Dec. 2024 His mirthless laugh might have suggested Kafkaesque persecution, or Hardyesque inexorability of fate. Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024 Susan Faludi Laugh-In On the joyful Kamala Harris and the mirthless Donald Trump Nathaniel Rich Silent Spring Why aren’t the candidates talking about climate change? Patricia J. Williams, The New York Review of Books, 18 Oct. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mirthless
Adjective
  • With two more wins against the woebegone Chicago White Sox, Seattle could sneak to within 1 1/2 games before the Astros open a weekend series at Yankee Stadium on Friday.
    Chandler Rome, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Only Hunter Goodman, a catcher who played for Hartford in 2022 and 23, will represent the woebegone franchise in the All-Star Game.
    Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 13 July 2025
Adjective
  • For three days, things were cheerless for Courtney Williams.
    Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 28 May 2025
  • Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
    Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • One purveyor of fairy tales that wasn’t afraid of a sad ending?
    Elisabeth Sherman, Parents, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Sade Bess, a Combs fan from Brooklyn, left the court’s overflow observation room looking both sad and relieved.
    Jennifer Peltz, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • On occasion, especially as the film builds to its lugubrious finale, Mielants tries other tricks, simulating long tracking shots that seem to glide through the school and then out onto the grounds.
    Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The legacy relaunch — originally titled Superman: Legacy when the project was announced in 2023 — represents a stark departure from writer-director Zack Snyder’s comparatively lugubrious, Zod-killing superhero deconstruction Man of Steel (2013).
    Chris Lee, Vulture, 14 July 2025
Adjective
  • Schnabel has already introduced his most florid gambit: flashbacks to Dante Alighieri, who is played by Isaac with a morose Shakespearean flourish.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 3 Sep. 2025
  • A lot of long-timers have been talking about the monsoon in the past tense, morose over the decline of an Arizona icon.
    Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • More than the music or the melancholic nostalgia, though, what felt devastating was the realization of how rare the festival’s sense of collective possibility feels today.
    Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 30 Sep. 2025
  • The project alternates between details of everyday life—imbued with a surreal, universal quality—and delicate, melancholic landscapes alongside portraits of figures suspended in time, inhabiting their own oneiric world.
    Caterina De Biasio, Vogue, 24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Following the black-and-white aesthetics and melancholy lyricism of TTPD, the high saturation and sparkles associated with Showgirl — which is comprised of flashy pop bangers — feel even more vibrant.
    Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The pop icon’s 12th album, released at midnight on Friday, is being hailed for the singer’s return to upbeat pop following last year’s melancholy The Tortured Poets Department, with Swift reuniting with Swedish hitmaker producers Max Martin and Shellback.
    James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Maeve ends up turning Sam into the police, exhausted, dejected, and utterly defeated.
    Grace Byron, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Ellen wonders, dejected and clearly envisioning her own future.
    Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 26 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Mirthless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mirthless. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.

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