What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Dismal vs Dispirited - What's the difference?

dismal | dispirited |

As adjectives the difference between dismal and dispirited

is that dismal is disappointingly inadequate while dispirited is without energy, gusto or drive, enervated, without the will to accomplish, disheartened.

As a verb dispirited is

past tense of dispirit.

dismal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Disappointingly inadequate.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}
  • Gloomy and bleak.
  • Depressing.
  • *, chapter=12
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * dismal science

    dispirited

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (dispirit)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Without energy, gusto or drive, enervated, without the will to accomplish, disheartened.
    • So dispirited were the troops after the loss of their beloved commander that they moped about and could barely be bothered to eat let alone load their guns.
  • *{{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=April 19 , author=Josh Halliday , title=Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised? , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The shift in the balance of power online has allowed anyone to publish to the world, from dispirited teenagers in south London to an anonymous cyber-dissident in a Middle East autocracy.}}