different between dreary vs mournful

English

Etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English dr?ori? (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?rews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear +? -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English dr?or (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d???i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d????i/
• Rhymes: -???i, -??i

Adjective

dreary (comparative drearier or more dreary, superlative dreariest or most dreary)

1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

   It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.

   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...
2. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.

Derived terms

• drear
• drearihead
• drearihood
• drearily
• dreariment
• dreariness
• drearisome

Translations

Anagrams

• Ardrey, Drayer, yarder, yarred

English

Alternative forms

• mournfull

Etymology

mourn +? -ful

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m??nf?l/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??nf?l/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?mo(?)?nf?l/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?mo?nf?l/
• Hyphenation: mourn?ful

Adjective

mournful (comparative mournfuller or more mournful, superlative mournfullest or most mournful)

1. Filled with grief or sadness; being in a state in which one mourns.
2. Fit to inspire mourning; tragic.
   • 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

     Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:sad

Translations