dolesome
Syllables: dole·someUK/ˈdəʊlsəm/US/ˈdoʊlsəm/
dolesome adjective: characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
Adjective
dolesome (comparative more dolesome, superlative most dolesome)
- Characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
- The grandmother [...] raised her under the dolesome eyes of a multicoloured Virgin Mary.1973, Toni Morrison, Sula, Chatto & Windus (1993), page 17
- Synonyms:
- miserable, unhappy, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless
Synonyms of dolesome
- miserable
- unhappy
- atrabiliary
- atrabilious
- blitheless
- dispirited
- blue
- bummed out
- chapfallen
- cheerless
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- chopfallen
- crestfallen
- cut up
- damp
- dejected
- depressed
- despondent
- disgruntled
- disconsolate
- disheartened
- dismal
- doleful
- down
- down in the dumps
- down in the mouth
- downcast
- downhearted
- downsome
- dull
- elegiac
- elegious
- forlorn
- gloomy
- glum
- grief-stricken
- grieving
- heavy-hearted
- heartsore
- heartsick
- inconsolable
Forms of dolesome
| comparative | more dolesome |
|---|---|
| superlative | most dolesome |
Origin of dolesome
From dole (“sorrow, grief”) + -some.
Words that rhyme with dolesome
Questions about dolesome
- What does dolesome mean?
- Dolesome means characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
- What part of speech is dolesome?
- Dolesome is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce dolesome?
- Dolesome is pronounced /ˈdoʊlsəm/ (US).
Words near dolesome in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dolesome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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