depressing

adjective

de·​press·​ing di-ˈpre-siŋ 

dē-

: that depresses

especially : causing emotional depression

a depressing story

depressingly

di-ˈpre-siŋ-lē 

dē-

adverb

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• disconsolate
• dismal
• drear
• dreary
• dreich [chiefly Scottish]
• elegiac
• elegiacal
• forlorn
• funereal
• gloomy
• glum
• godforsaken
• gray
• grey
• lonely
• lonesome
• lugubrious
• miserable
• morbid
• morose
• murky
• plutonian
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• solemn
• somber
• sombre
• sullen
• sunless
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• wretched

Examples of depressing in a Sentence

This rainy weather is depressing.

He paints a depressing picture of modern life.

Recent Examples on the Web

Viewership increased, the Afternoon Depression Zone grew less depressing, everyone seemed happier. —Kimberlee Speakman, People.com, 23 Jan. 2025

As well as Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, today is known as Blue Monday – thought to be the most depressing day of the year. —Alyssa Jaffer, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2025

Two other notes from yesterday’s action: Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray have apparently made up after their depressing row at Wimbledon. —Chris Branch, The Athletic, 17 Jan. 2025

Hibi’s images of the camps are, not surprisingly, somber, even depressing. —Aruna D’souza, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1629, in the meaning defined above