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Somber vs Gloom - What's the difference?

somber | gloom |

As verbs the difference between somber and gloom

is that somber is while gloom is to be dark or gloomy.

As an adjective somber

is dark or dreary in character; joyless, and grim.

As a noun gloom is

darkness, dimness or obscurity.

somber

English

Alternative forms

* (Commonwealth English) sombre

Adjective

(er)
  • Dark or dreary in character; joyless, and grim.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2002 , author=Dirk Wittenborn , title=Fierce People , passage=My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus .}}
  • Dark, lacking color or brightness.

    • Synonyms

    * melancholy, unhappy, sad

    Verb

    (en verb)

    • References

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    gloom

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • Darkness, dimness or obscurity.
    • the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
    • 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.
  • A melancholy, depressing or despondent atmosphere.
  • Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
  • * Burke
    • A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.
  • A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

    • Derived terms

    * doom and gloom * gloomily * (l) (humorous) * gloomy

    Related terms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be dark or gloomy.
  • * Goldsmith
    • The black gibbet glooms beside the way.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 189:
    • Around all the dark forest gloomed .
  • to look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
  • * D. H. Lawrence
    • Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
  • To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
  • * Walpole
    • A bow window gloomed with limes.
  • * Tennyson
    • A black yew gloomed the stagnant air.
  • To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
  • * Tennyson
    • Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.
  • * Goldsmith
    • What sorrows gloomed that parting day.
  • To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

    • Quotations

    * (English Citations of "gloom")