as in woebegone
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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
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
-
In two years Curt Cignetti took a woebegone college team, with nary a five-star player, to an undefeated national championship.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Jan. 2026
-
The Chargers would clinch the sixth-seeded spot with a victory over the Broncos or a loss by the Buffalo Bills to the woebegone New York Jets or a tie with the Broncos and a tie by the Bills or a tie with the Broncos and a loss by the Texans.—
Elliott Teaford,
Oc Register,
29 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
This episode is disappointingly cheerless overall—it’s not frosted, tinsely, glowing, silver with bells and mist, or snowy.—
Jenny Singer,
Glamour,
3 Nov. 2025
-
For three days, things were cheerless for Courtney Williams.—
Mike Cook,
Twin Cities,
28 May 2025
Adjective
-
Meanwhile, Nancy Guthrie's Arizona community gathered for a vigil Wednesday evening while the world can't look away from an incident that is deeply, horrifically sad and frightening.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
5 Feb. 2026
-
The song is sophisticated and simple, sad and somehow triumphant.—
Jed Gottlieb,
Boston Herald,
5 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Four Spent the Day Together is a flat, at times lugubrious account of losing such conviction.—
Rosa Lyster,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
-
Both men’s physiognomy can lean similarly to the lugubrious.—
Rebecca Mead,
New Yorker,
17 Nov. 2025
Adjective
-
Not with breaking transfer news but with an umpteenth text asking what was up and, with more melancholy, why more wasn’t up and why everyone was being so frugal.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
4 Feb. 2026
-
The experience promises to be bracingly new, chaotic, and exciting, but there was inevitably a melancholy tinge to this year’s edition, which became, in effect—and affect—an eleven-day farewell.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
31 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Despite its serious subject matter, the novel is neither morbid nor morose.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Jan. 2026
-
The mood is neither morose nor blindly optimistic, even as the film celebrates the sense of family and community among these Southerners.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
17 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
There’s a wry grace to this misadventure-palooza, forged in the key of melancholic mid-career Woody Allen but with variations on those themes which achieve their own pointedly funny clarity, especially where Ubeimar Rios’ all-time portrayal of a sad sack is concerned.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Jan. 2026
-
There's a melancholic tone, an aesthetic darkness and a general abnormality to the new Marvel series that makes it unlike any Marvel series or film before it.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Its ghostly guitar melodies float as its basslines thud along, growing both more menacing and dejected as Katz’s depression becomes impossible to outrun.—
Grace Robins-Somerville,
Pitchfork,
23 Jan. 2026
-
The postgame news conference felt like a funeral, with muted voices and dejected faces.—
Chris Vannini,
New York Times,
1 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mirthless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mirthless. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
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