gloom
/ɡlum/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.31 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "the gloom of a forest, or of midnight"
- "Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work."
- "On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morning gloom with three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding."
- "A sudden little river crossed my path / As unexpected as a serpent comes. / No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms— / This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath / For the fiend's glowing hoof—to see the wrath / Of its black eddy bespate with flakes and spumes."
- "Although it's always crowded You still can find some room For broken-hearted lovers To cry there in their gloom."
- "A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits."
Etymology
From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ǵʰley-, *gloom, glōm, *glōm, *glōmaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡlum/
- British English: /ɡluːm/