Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

glum

/ɡlʌm/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.52 in modern English

Syllables: glum
IPA: /ɡlʌm/

7

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

1

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Despondent; moody; sullen.

verb

To look sullen; to be of a sour countenance; to be glum.

Obsolete

noun

Obsolete; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"I[…]frighten people by my glum face."
"[…] and the prospect of three more days of teaching before the weekend break, Mr. MacPherson felt unusually glum."
"A glummer look replaced the already glum look on Arthur Dent's face."
"U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who had sought to save Chevron during hours of argument in January, looks slightly glum in her seat at the counsel tables."
"upon me he gan to loure and glum, Enforcing him so for to ryse withall, But that I shortly unto hem did cum, With his thre hedes he spytte all his venum"
"That they be deaf and dumb, And play silence and glum"

Etymology

Probably from Middle Low German glum (“glum”), related to German dialectal glumm (“gloomy, troubled, turbid”). More at gloomy.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: glum, glomen, glome

Usage

Inflected Forms

glummer (comparative) glummest (superlative) glums (present, singular) glumming (participle, present) glummed (participle, past) glummed (past)

Derived Forms

glumly glumness

Synonyms

cheerless comfortless bleak dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate dismal doleful dolesome

Rhymes With

from some come become dumb mum sum um drum cum thumb gum

Questions

How do you pronounce glum?: The recorded pronunciation is /ɡlʌm/.
What does glum mean?: Despondent; moody; sullen.
Where does glum come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce glum

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “glum”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ɡlʌm/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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