Dictionary

lugubrious en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /lʊˈɡ(j)uː.bɹi.əs/ (UK)
• /ləˈɡ(j)u.bɹi.əs/ (US)
• /luːˈɡ(j)uː.bɹi.əs/ (UK)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lūgubris (“mournful; gloomy”), with the suffix -ious.

Meanings

1. Gloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree.
   • The congregation was "spellbound unto the Meekest of its Members," and none more so than Rick himself, who sits in an enraptured trance, nodding his broad head to the cadences of Makepeace's rhetoric, even though every Welsh note of it — to the excited ears and eyes of those around him — is hurled at Rick personally down the length of the aisle, and rammed home with a botched stab of the lugubrious Watermaster forefinger. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
   • The exaggeration with darkness imparted to the glooms of this region impressed Henchard more than he had expected. The lugubrious harmony of the spot with his domestic situation was too perfect for him, impatient of effects, scenes, and adumbrations. 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIX, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 242:
   • I poured one big drink in a water glass, and we had slugs. Oh, it was sweet and delicious and worth my whole lugubrious voyage. 1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 12, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:
   • His client’s lugubrious expression tipped off the detective that something lurked beneath her optimistic words.
   • There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere. 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203:

Forms

Deriveds

unlugubrious · lugubriousness · lugubriously · lugubriate

Synonyms

unlively · downsome · threnetical · gloomy · jawfallen · inconsolable · dreich · grief-stricken · wretched · triste · cheerless · Plutonic · gloomsome · disheartened · dolesome · glum · sullen · dismal · solemn · lugubrious · chapfallen · low-spirited · solemn · woe · melancholy · despondent · dispirited · morose · saddened · woeful · grieving · down in the dumps · glum · dismal · tristful · cut up · down · dejected · Plutonian · unhappy · mirthless · gayless · dire · doleful · elegious · heartsick · downhearted · grim · threnetic · drearisome · doleful · moody · lamentful · sorrow-ridden · wintry · miserable · elegiac · wistful · unhappy · uncheerful · saturnine · downcast · uncheery · querulous · damp · blue · woeful · chopfallen · lumpish · disconsolate · cheerless · atrabilious · plaintive · depressing · desolate · sunless · comfortless · bummed out · mournful · lachrymose · uncheery · mopey · spiritless · heavy-hearted · forlorn · melancholy · gray · crestfallen · atrabiliary · shattered · disconsolate · disgruntled · miserable · lugubrious · passionate · sombre · saturnine · unconsolable · joyless · depressed · dull · bleak · unmerry · joyless · somber · sullen · ruthful · dreary · drear · forlorn · lack-laughter · dark · low · morose · sombre · dolesome · gloomy · spiritless · woebegone · infelicitous · uncheerful · down in the mouth · no joke · sorrowful · sorrowsome · dreary · melancholic · heartsore · miserable · sad · blitheless

Translations (39)

ru скорбный (gloomy) · bg мрачен (gloomy) · ru траурный (gloomy) · ka ნაღვლიანი (gloomy) · nl luguber (gloomy) · fr lugubre (gloomy) · ka ჟამი (gloomy) · ro lugubru (gloomy) · la lūgubris (gloomy) · ota آجی (gloomy) · sh sumoran (gloomy) · bg печален (gloomy) · pt lôbrego (gloomy) · ru печа́льный (gloomy) · da dyster (gloomy) · sk ponurý (gloomy) · hu lugubriózus (gloomy) · ka სევდიანი (gloomy) · fi synkkä (gloomy) · pt lúgubre (gloomy) · sv dyster (gloomy) · is sorgar- (gloomy) · ru мра́чный (gloomy) · tr kasvetli (gloomy) · is raunamæddur (gloomy) · is sorgbitinn (gloomy) · it lugubre (gloomy) · hu siralmas (gloomy) · de kummervoll (gloomy) · sv luguber (gloomy) · es lúgubre (gloomy) · nb luguber (gloomy) · is hryggðar- (gloomy) · hu gyászos (gloomy) · nn luguber (gloomy) · ca llòbrec (gloomy) · sk pochmúrny (gloomy) · de düster (gloomy) · hu siránkozó (gloomy)