Gloom Meaning
/ɡluːm/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounDarkness, dimness, or obscurity.
nounA depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
Sentence Examples
Those gloom and doom economists aren't worth their salt.
When you were a child you feared the gloom.
CEFR Practice Quiz
A deep ____ settled over the forest as the sun set.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The heavy clouds and continuous rain added to the overall sense of ____ that hung over the entire city.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work."
— [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
"On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morning gloom with three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding."
— 2022 January 12, “News in pictures: Repatriated '66s' return home”, in RAIL, number 948, page 20:
"A sudden little river crossed my path / As unexpected as a serpent comes. / No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms— / This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath / For the fiend's glowing hoof—to see the wrath / Of its black eddy bespate with flakes and spumes."
— 1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 19, page 142:
"Although it's always crowded
You still can find some room
For broken-hearted lovers
To cry there in their gloom."
— 1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:
"A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits."
— 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
A deep ____ settled over the forest as the sun set.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The heavy clouds and continuous rain added to the overall sense of ____ that hung over the entire city.