doomscroll
/ˈdumˌskɹoʊl/
doomscroll verb: to continually read Internet news about catastrophic events.
Verb
doomscroll (third-person singular simple present doomscrolls, present participle doomscrolling, simple past and past participle doomscrolled)
- To continually read Internet news about catastrophic events.
- You doomscroll about all kinds of things including pandemics, racial injustice, natural disasters, wars, and political unrest.2020, Robert West, chapter 1, in Stop Doomscrolling: How to Break the Cycle to Relieve Stress, Decrease Anxiety, and Regain Your Life, Annus Mirabilis Publishing
- “Why are you doomscrolling?” I ask. ¶ “I’m not doomscrolling.” Swipe, swipe...2021, Jesse Gordon, “We’re All in This Together”, in El Cassetto, Cream-Colored Coffee Cup
- To excessively and unproductively consume Internet posts.
- It sucks that I can't even open my phone and check my emails without doomscrolling social media for an hour!
Examples of doomscroll in a sentence
- Keep a book in your bag to avoid the temptation to doomscroll.2022 January 1, “100 ways to slightly improve your life without really trying”, in The Guardian:
- My heart is so heavy, so all I’m going to do is doomscroll.”2025 September 15, Rebecca Liu, quoting Sandra Oh, “‘The old white patriarchy isn’t knocking on my door!’ Sandra Oh on joy, despair – and...
Forms of doomscroll
| third-person singular present | doomscrolls |
|---|---|
| present participle | doomscrolling |
| past participle | doomscrolled |
| past | doomscrolled |
Origin of doomscroll
From doom + scroll, probably a back-formation from doomscrolling.
Questions about doomscroll
- What does doomscroll mean?
- Doomscroll means to continually read Internet news about catastrophic events.
- How do you use doomscroll in a sentence?
- Keep a book in your bag to avoid the temptation to doomscroll.
- What part of speech is doomscroll?
- Doomscroll is a verb.
- How do you pronounce doomscroll?
- Doomscroll is pronounced /ˈdumˌskɹoʊl/ (US).
- What is the past tense of doomscroll?
- The past tense of doomscroll is doomscrolled.
Words near doomscroll in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: doomscroll (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-doomscroll.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doomscroll.wav.
Cite this entry: “doomscroll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doomscroll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.