Word.ws English Dictionary

Synonyms of drear

41 similar words

Another word for drear is depressing. Other synonyms of drear are grim, melancholy, dreary, miserable and gloomy.

Synonyms and similar words for drear

adjectiveDreary.

  • bleakUnhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
  • drearyDrab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
  • cheerlessDevoid of cheer; gloomy.
  • comfortlessOf a thing: offering no comfort; uncomforting.
  • darkConducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
  • moroseSullen, gloomy; showing a brooding ill humour.
  • depressingCausing depression or sadness.
  • desolateDismal or dreary.
  • direExpressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal.
  • disconsolateCheerless, dreary.
  • dismalCausing despair; gloomy and bleak.
  • dolefulFilled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
  • dolesomeCharacterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
  • drearisomeCharacterised or marked by dreariness.
  • dreich UK, dialectalBleak, cheerless, dismal, dreary, miserable.
  • forlornPitifully sad, wretched, miserable; lonely, especially from feeling abandoned, deserted, forsaken.
  • gaylessLacking gaiety; gloomy; somber; drab.
  • grayDreary, gloomy, cloudy.
  • gloomsomeCharacterised or marked by gloom.
  • gloomySuffering from gloom; melancholy; dejected.
  • grimDismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.
  • joylessWithout joy; unhappy, sad.
  • lack-laughterCheerless; sombre; serious.
  • lugubriousGloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree.
  • melancholyAffected with great sadness or depression.
  • mirthlessLacking mirth; devoid of joy; sad.
  • miserableOf the weather, extremely unpleasant due to being cold, wet, overcast, etc.
  • no joke
  • saturnineOf a setting: depressing, dull, gloomy.
  • somber
  • sombreDark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit.
  • spiritlessLacking energy, drive, motivation or emotion. Enervated.
  • sullenGloomy; dismal; foreboding.
  • sunlessDreary, cheerless.
  • uncheerfulNot cheerful.
  • uncheeryNot cheery; gloomy, pessimistic.
  • unhappy
  • unmerryNot merry, the opposite of merry; sad, gloomy.
  • wintryChilling, cheerless.
  • woeful
  • solemn obsoleteCheerless, gloomy, sombre.

Meaning of drear

  1. adjective Dreary.
  2. noun Gloom; sadness.

Full definition of drear

drear in other languages

Questions about synonyms of drear

What is another word for drear?
Drear has 41 synonyms on Word.ws, such as depressing, grim, melancholy, dreary, miserable, gloomy, sombre and dire.
What does drear mean?
Drear means dreary.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drear (page history and authors) and the entries of the words listed. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws grouped the synonyms and antonyms by meaning and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “Synonyms of drear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/synonyms/drear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.