as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
a dank and cheerless castle that was once the site of unspeakable horrors
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Recent Examples of cheerless
Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
—
Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Wedged between the cheerless skyscrapers of Third Avenue and an uncharming stretch of Second, just blocks north of the bro bars of Murray Hill, is a row of nine townhouses.
—Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Aug. 2024
Election polls may seem cheerless, inscrutable, and wrapped in data and murky terminology.
—W. Joseph Campbell, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024
Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, there wills broken, their intelligences numbed.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 5 July 2024
Photo: Gregg Segal One day in 2003, Joseph Schulman faced a half-dozen or so military officers in a cheerless high-rise office outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.
—Ariel Bleicher, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2013
That turned an entertaining exhibition into an awkward and cheerless faux-competitive affair.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022
For all his gloom, Mann was not entirely cheerless.
—Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2021
Lawrence’s was among the last, with a green campus full of trees, but a gray, cheerless interior and food that, in his words, looked regurgitated.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2020
Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Wedged between the cheerless skyscrapers of Third Avenue and an uncharming stretch of Second, just blocks north of the bro bars of Murray Hill, is a row of nine townhouses.
—Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Aug. 2024
Election polls may seem cheerless, inscrutable, and wrapped in data and murky terminology.
—W. Joseph Campbell, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024
Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, there wills broken, their intelligences numbed.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 5 July 2024
Photo: Gregg Segal One day in 2003, Joseph Schulman faced a half-dozen or so military officers in a cheerless high-rise office outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.
—Ariel Bleicher, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2013
That turned an entertaining exhibition into an awkward and cheerless faux-competitive affair.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022
For all his gloom, Mann was not entirely cheerless.
—Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2021
Lawrence’s was among the last, with a green campus full of trees, but a gray, cheerless interior and food that, in his words, looked regurgitated.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cheerless
Adjective
-
The coming-of-age story finds a new generation of young women in Gilead, grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
1 Apr. 2025
-
Stocks had sold off sharply last Friday, amid growing uncertainty on U.S. trade policy and a bleak inflation outlook.—
Amala Balakrishner,
CNBC,
30 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
This keeps us lonely at a time when the loneliness public health crisis is at an all-time high.—
Priya Vulchi,
Time,
9 Apr. 2025
-
Ro, now a police officer, needs help investigating the death 22 years earlier of their classmate, Ricky, killed in a hit-and-run on a lonely county road.—
Mary Ann Grossmann,
Twin Cities,
6 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
The week continues to build excitement with the Celtic Cross Mass and Ceremony (this year on Sunday, March 9) and the beautiful and somber Sgt.—
Jessica Farthing,
Southern Living,
10 Mar. 2025
-
The mood at the event was anything but somber, though.—
Kristen Bateman,
Vogue,
10 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
The Page Turner sees the Page family consumed by the literary world — each in their own way — as its dark, foundational secret runs the risk of exposure.—
Rachel Raposas,
People.com,
4 Apr. 2025
-
While the app only went dark for a matter of a day or so in the U.S., it was removed from the Apple and Google app stores for weeks, because federal law could have seen Apple or Google penalized for distributing it.—
David Phelan,
Forbes.com,
4 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Some people thought that was too depressing or whatever.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
7 Apr. 2025
-
Many learned the depressing answer only when trying to scan badges and getting rejected by security, which treated them more or less like trespassers.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
5 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Fourteen years of war have left the country desolate, and its people exhausted; millions have been displaced or were forced to become refugees.—
Raghed Waked & Justin Salhani,
The Dial,
25 Mar. 2025
-
That quality is maintained first and foremost by a desolate whistling-wind sound effect in the background of all the scenes, along with a sustained droning musical score.—
Ben Coxworth,
New Atlas,
14 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Mindfulness mediates the association between chronotype and depressive symptoms in young adults.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
21 Mar. 2025
-
There are four basic types of the disorder, which are characterized by periods of elation and hyper-activity known as manic episodes, which are then followed by depressive stages where the patient experiences feelings of sadness and depression.—
Vanessa Etienne,
People.com,
14 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Alison Krauss will sell no high, lonesome sound before its time.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
2 Apr. 2025
-
The cowboy is a longstanding symbol of North America, and is romanticized as a ‘real man,’ the strong silent type, lonesome, self-reliant and emotionally distant.—
Cecilia Rodriguez,
Forbes,
2 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cheerless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cheerless. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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