Synonyms of somber

somber

adjective

ˈsäm-bər 

variants or sombre

1

as in darkened

being without light or without much light

the prison's somber interrogation room has the desired effect of striking fear and despair into the prisoner

Synonyms & Similar Words

• darkened
• dark
• murky
• black
• gloomy
• obscured
• dusky
• dim
• dimmed
• dusk
• obscure
• darkish
• darkling
• lightless
• unlit
• pitch-black
• stygian
• darksome
• pitch-dark
• tenebrous
• pitchy
• caliginous
• rayless
• crepuscular
• twilit
• gray
• tenebrific
• misty
• lackluster
• shadowy
• moonless
• starless
• dulled
• shady
• pale
• cloudy
• clouded
• dull
• leaden
• foggy
• smoggy
• fuliginous
• sunless
• shadowlike
• soupy
• befogged
• beclouded

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• light
• bright
• brilliant
• luminous
• lucid
• illuminated
• lit
• shining
• sparkling
• radiant
• lightsome
• brightened
• illumined
• resplendent
• lucent
• incandescent
• glaring
• glowing
• lambent
• effulgent
• alight
• beaming
• glossy
• lustrous
• beamy
• shiny
• aglitter
• sunlit
• highlighted
• moonlit
• agleam
• relucent
• moony
• ultrabright
• ablaze
• spotlighted
• starlit
• floodlit

2

as in bleak

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

the somber occasion of a dear friend's funeral

Synonyms & Similar Words

• bleak
• solemn
• dark
• depressing
• depressive
• lonely
• desolate
• darkening
• morbid
• murky
• gray
• lonesome
• cold
• funereal
• blue
• gloomy
• black
• morose
• miserable
• sad
• elegiac
• lugubrious
• depressed
• sullen
• glum
• cheerless
• dreary
• chill
• melancholy
• sepulchral
• dismal
• forlorn
• wretched
• saturnine
• disconsolate
• dire
• oppressive
• cloudy
• comfortless
• mournful
• drear
• melancholic
• tenebrous
• unhappy
• grim
• dreich
• dull
• desperate
• godforsaken
• plutonian
• dejected
• Cimmerian
• mirthless
• sorrowful
• woebegone
• negative
• dim
• despondent
• sunless
• hopeless
• distressful
• tenebrific
• pessimistic
• menacing
• discouraging
• inconsolable
• dispiriting
• dismaying
• distressing
• woeful
• plaintive
• upsetting
• low
• disheartening
• droopy
• down
• dour
• hangdog
• lamentable
• drab
• discomfiting
• colorless
• threatening
• lowering
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• cheerful
• bright
• friendly
• cheery
• festive
• cordial
• comforting
• joyous
• gay
• joyful
• sunshiny
• merry
• buoyant
• jolly
• mirthful
• optimistic
• gay
• blithe
• hopeful
• heartwarming
• encouraging
• cheering
• lighthearted
• blithesome
• jocund
• lightsome

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of somber

All parents struggle in some way to adjust to life as empty nesters, but Charlie leaves his mom and dad in a somber, reflective state that casts a heavy pall over an episode that drifts toward the turgid. — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026

Beck’s first album in seven years is a sublime return to the somber folk-rock of career highpoints like 2002’s Sea Change and 2014’s Morning Phase. — Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 18 Sep. 2026

Two years later, I was born, on their wedding date and into a much larger and more somber coincidence. — Sneha Dhandapani, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2026

The actor-director continued on a more somber note, driving home the importance of free speech. — Jack Smart, PEOPLE, 3 Sep. 2026