dismally

/ˈdɪz.mə.li/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.10 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

"The ribs of the few horses showed dismally."
"Outside an owl was hooting most dismally in the darkness."
"Boris Johnson's speech to the nation on Sunday May 10 was rambly, incoherent, and he failed dismally in his attempt to sound Churchillian."

Etymology tree English dismal Middle English -ly English -ly English dismally From dismal + -ly.

more dismally (comparative) most dismally (superlative)

abysmally

Questions

How do you pronounce dismally?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈdɪz.mə.li/.

What does dismally mean?

In a dismal manner.

Where does dismally come from?

Etymology tree English dismal Middle English -ly English -ly English dismally From dismal + -ly.

How to pronounce dismally

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “dismally”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈdɪz.mə.li/) so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “dismally”.

Repeat and practice — Say “dismally” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.