bleak

adjective

ˈblēk 

bleaker; bleakest

1

: exposed and barren and often windswept

a bleak landscape

bleak soils

2

: cold, raw

a bleak November evening

3

a

: lacking in warmth, life, or kindliness : grim

a bleak prison documentary

b

: not hopeful or encouraging : depressing

a bleak prognosis

a bleak outlook

the future looks bleak

c

: severely simple or austere

a bleak hotel room

bleakly adverb

bleakness noun

Synonyms

• black
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• 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

Choose the Right Synonym for bleak

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 bleak in a Sentence

a bleak outlook for the team for the rest of the season

it was a dark and bleak wintry day

Recent Examples on the Web

Remember, this was a pretty bleak time for basic cable. —Josef Adalian, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2024

The reality that the Giants have four more games of this despair is painfully bleak. —Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 15 Dec. 2024

After two years of massive layoffs and the promise of more consolidation to come in media and entertainment in 2025, the mood is bleak among executives of a certain age. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 14 Dec. 2024

But environmental diplomacy has also reached a hard new crossroads: The science of ecological destruction is settled, the trajectory is bleak, and the need for change is obvious. —Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 13 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English bleke pale; probably akin to Old English blāc

First Known Use

1574, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

bleak

adjective

ˈblēk 

1

: open to wind or weather

a bleak coast

2

: cold entry 1 sense 1, raw

a bleak November evening

3

: dreary, cheerless

the future looks bleak

4

: very plain

bleakly adverb

bleakness noun