disconsolate

adjective

dis·​con·​so·​late dis-ˈkän(t)-sə-lət 

1

: cheerless

a clutch of disconsolate houses

—D. H. Lawrence

2

: dejected, downcast

the team returned disconsolate from three losses

disconsolately adverb

disconsolateness noun

disconsolation

(ˌ)dis-ˌkän(t)-sə-ˈlā-shən 

noun

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressing
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• 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 disconsolate in a Sentence

Campaign workers grew increasingly disconsolate as the results came in.

spent her last years in the disconsolate environs of a cheap boarding house

Recent Examples on the Web

By the time the judge adjourned the court, Bryan was disconsolate. —Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024

Context: Harris — who served as district attorney of San Francisco, as attorney general of California and as a U.S. senator from the state between 2017 and 2021 — could help electrify an exhausted, disconsolate party. —Jacob Knutson, Axios, 22 July 2024

Khoury sees both films as portraits of artists in exile, with Farouk growing increasingly disconsolate over both his personal struggle as a filmmaker and the situation in Palestine. —Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 20 July 2024

Video of the injury and his disconsolate reaction is here. —Jackson Castellano, Sun Sentinel, 15 July 2024

The middle voice moves at a more deliberate pace through a contrastingly disconsolate fifteen-line text. —Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024

After her death, Morgan even resorted to necromancy, reviving the People’s Princess (now embodied by Elizabeth Debicki) as an apparition who soothes a disconsolate Charles (Dominic West) and makes peace with a grieving but resentful Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton). —Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023

Sign up In fairness to this disconsolate lot, there are some signs that some of Trump’s competitors understand what’s been gift-wrapped and laid at their feet. —Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 3 Aug. 2023

That’s why some Democrats have been so disconsolate despite their presidential victory. —Doyle McManus Washington Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2020

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Medieval Latin disconsolatus, from Latin dis- + consolatus, past participle of consolari to console

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

disconsolate

adjective

dis·​con·​so·​late dis-ˈkän(t)-sə-lət 

: very sad : dejected

disconsolately adverb

disconsolateness noun