The Right Word (word)

GLUM A sullen person is gloomy, untalkative, and ill-humored by nature, but a glum person is usually silent because of low spirits or depressing circumstances (: to be glum in the face of a plummeting stock market). Melancholy suggests a more or less chronic sadness (: her melancholy was the result of an unhappy childhood), while a person who is saturnine has a forbiddingly gloomy and taciturn nature (: his request was met with a saturnine and scornful silence). Dour refers to a grim and bitter outlook or disposition (: a dour old woman who never smiled), and doleful implies a mournful sadness (: the child's doleful expression as his parents left). Someone or something described as lugubrious is mournful or gloomy in an affected or exaggerated way (: lugubrious songs about lost love).