Synonyms for bleak

modified

  1. Applied to countryside or conditions

    dreary, desolate, bare, cheerless, wild, exposed, barren, blank, disheartening, weary, melancholy, lonely, flat, somber, grim, distressing, depressing, comfortless, hopeless, drear, joyless, uninviting, dull, sad, mournful, monotonous, waste, gloomy, dismal, unsheltered, windswept, treeless, frowning, blighted, blasted, unpopulated, desert, deserted, fog-hung, craggy, scorched, stony, burned (over), denuded, bombed, deforested, bulldozed, cleared, frozen.

    Antonyms verdant, green*, fruitful.

  2. Applied to atmosphere

    chill, windy, stormy, boisterous, cold, piercing, cutting, wintry, keen, biting, icy, hiemal, shivery, boreal, bitter, rigorous, chilly, nipping, severe, raw, freezing, inclement, frosty, pinching, glacial, polar, arctic, sharp, harsh, dank, foul, murky, misty, foggy, brumous.

    Antonyms mild*, pleasant, sunny.

See bleak in Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus II


adjective
  1. Dark and depressing:

    black, blue, cheerless, dark, desolate, dismal, dreary, gloomy, glum, joyless, somber, tenebrific. See happy, light
  2. Cold and forbidding:

    austere, dour, grim, hard, harsh, severe, stark. See attitude, hot

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