dismal means disastrous, calamitous. It carries an Arena rating of 1491, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, dismal ranks #1,824 of 14,297 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,328 of 14,438 for Most Storied Words, #2,463 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
dismal is pronounced /ˈdɪzməl/.
Why “dismal” is a great word
Causing or showing a state of profound gloom or dreariness. From Middle English dismal, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals ("(the) bad days"), from Medieval Latin diēs malī ("bad days"), referring to two unlucky days in each month of the medieval calendar. Unlike "bleak," which emphasizes a barren, windswept exposure, or "dreary," which suggests a dull, tedious monotony, dismal carries the weight of an inherited, oppressive cheerlessness. It is the sodden chill of a forgotten cellar, the ashen light before a rain that never comes, and the hollow echo in a place abandoned to silence—the medieval certainty that certain days were cursed, a weight the world presses upon the chest.
Etymology
From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).
adj
- Disastrous, calamitous.
- Disappointingly inadequate.“He received a dismal compensation.”
- Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.“The storm made for a dismal weekend”
- Depressing, dreary, cheerless.“She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair”
noun
- A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States.“.[…] the proprietors of all the great unimproved tracts of Swamp lands will form themselves into Drainage Companies, by which method alone can we ever hope to witness the complete reclamation of the dismals of the seaboard. No reasonable doubt can be entertained that the clearing and draining of the lands will produce their usual effects in ameliorating the climate and that the tidal portions of N”
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