dreary

adjective

drea·​ry ˈdrir-ē 

drearier; dreariest

1

: feeling, displaying, or reflecting listlessness or discouragement

cheer a dreary mind

—George Berkeley

2

: having nothing likely to provide cheer, comfort, or interest : gloomy, dismal

a cold, dreary morning

drearily

ˈdrir-ə-lē 

adverb

dreariness

ˈdrir-ē-nəs 

noun

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• disconsolate
• dismal
• drear
• 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

Choose the Right Synonym for dreary

dismal, dreary, bleak, gloomy, cheerless, desolate mean devoid of cheer or comfort.

dismal indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess.

dismal weather

dreary, often interchangeable with dismal, emphasizes discouragement resulting from sustained dullness or futility.

a dreary job

bleak suggests chill, dull, and barren characteristics that utterly dishearten.

the bleak years of the depression

gloomy often suggests lack of hope or promise.

gloomy war news

cheerless stresses absence of anything cheering.

a drab and cheerless office

desolate adds an element of utter remoteness or lack of human contact to any already disheartening aspect.

a desolate outpost

Examples of dreary in a Sentence

It was a gray, dreary morning.

The family struggled through dreary economic times.

Recent Examples on the Web

The film careens between a dreary sludge of despair and eventual heart-palpitating nightmare, Grace caught in a mercurial storm of her own moods without ballast and unable to be understood by those around her. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 May 2025

After all, who doesn’t want to soak up the sunshine after months of gray, dreary skies? —Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 15 May 2025

The Giants keep this slugfest close on a cold, dreary, rainy day in East Rutherford against J.J. McCarthy, whom Schoen passed on in the 2024 draft. —Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 15 May 2025

Maybe even ahead of schedule: an unexpected perk of flying semi-private is that your flight can depart early if all the passengers are present, giving you more time to soak up a Nantucket afternoon—even if that afternoon is a dreary introduction to the island’s nickname, The Gray Lady. —Skye Sherman, Travel + Leisure, 14 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English drery, from Old English drēorig sad, bloody, from drēor gore; akin to Old High German trūrēn to be sad, Goth driusan to fall

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for dreary

• beery
• bleary
• cheery
• cirri
• dearie
• deary
• eerie
• kiri
• leary
• leery
• peery
• query

Kids Definition

dreary

adjective

drea·​ry ˈdri(ə)r-ē 

drearier

ˈdrir-ē-ər

; dreariest

: having nothing that provides cheer, comfort, or interest

drearily

ˈdrir-ə-lē 

adverb

dreariness

ˈdrir-ē-nəs 

noun