mirthless

adjective

Definition of mirthlessnext
as in woebegone

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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 One thing the record makes clear is that Anderson is not afraid to mix humor into her work, proving that avant-garde performance mustn’t be mirthless or without joy. — David Harris, SPIN, 11 May 2026 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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mirthless
  1. woebegone
  2. cheerless
  3. sad
  4. lugubrious
  5. melancholy
  6. morose
  7. melancholic
  8. dejected
Adjective
  • Almost everything in this vast, artificial indoor garden, including the surrounding stands of bamboo and a woebegone girl sprouting angel wings, is rendered in the Belgian artist’s signature ash gray.
    — Miles Socha, Footwear News, 11 Sep. 2026
  • The simplest fix would be to temporarily divert money now earmarked for California’s woebegone high-speed rail project to Bay Area transit operations.
    — Marc Joffe, Mercury News, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of woebegone
Adjective
  • The storm let up before daybreak, but the morning was gray and cheerless with a cold wind.
    — Elwyn "Bud" Myers, Outdoor Life, 11 Mar. 2026
  • 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
Definition of cheerless
Adjective
  • State Drive, an ugly black roadway, separates the Science Center and its new addition from the park’s Rose Garden, and serves as a sad connector to the rest of the park.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2026
  • As more details came out, the sad truth of Perry’s relapses and drug hustle emerged.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of sad
Adjective
  • Alongside Paul Mescal and one Joe Alwyn, this most lugubrious of WhatsApp group chats is supposedly the inspiration behind Swift’s album, The Tortured Poets Department.
    — Ben Jureidini, Vanity Fair, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Reaction has been predictably lugubrious, although laced with gratitude and occasional humor.
    — Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman, 19 June 2026
Definition of lugubrious
Adjective
  • Perhaps that doubt is the secret melancholy at the heart of even their most seemingly celebratory songs.
    — Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 20 Oct. 2026
  • To be born whole again into the world, a new world—a world without melancholy.
    — Daniel Barnum, Longreads, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of melancholy
Adjective
  • But the sympathy in his voice keeps things from becoming too morose.
    — Brendan Hay, SPIN, 24 Aug. 2026
  • The first leg will be the ever-popular third-place playoff, in which a couple of morose losers compete for no trophy at all and a chance to show off the superior sourness of their grapes.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 17 July 2026
Definition of morose
Adjective
  • Conti’s songs are more fragmented and less wilfully melancholic than Smith’s.
    — Alex Robert Ross, Pitchfork, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Pedersen is a student of opera performance, and the novel is studded with terms of art, but its most apparent musical influence may be the high tragedy and melancholic tumult of that genre.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of melancholic
Adjective
  • The Melbourne duo taps into trip-hop’s essential strangeness on its latest album, trading the genre’s boilerplate languor for dejected moods, menacing auras, and slippery, all-consuming bass.
    — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 27 Oct. 2026
  • In Brand New Day, Peter resumes his duties as a friendly neighborhood superhero in New York City, but also remains dejected that MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are moving on with their lives without any memory of his love and friendship.
    — Tim Lammers, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026
Definition of dejected

Browse Nearby Words

mirthfulness
mirthless
mirthlessly
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Cite this Entry

“Mirthless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mirthless. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

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