lugubrious
Gloomily, theatrically sad
Lugubrious describes exaggerated or theatrical mournfulness—sadness that seems overdone or affected: his lugubrious sighs, a lugubrious funeral dirge.
The word often carries a hint of mockery, suggesting the gloom is performative rather than genuine.
A lugubrious expression looks comically sorrowful, like a basset hound's drooping face.
Filled with grief
- dolefulExpressing deep sorrow
- woefulExtremely sad or pitiful
- plaintiveSounding sad, sorrowful
- grief-strickenOverwhelmed by profound loss
tearful · lamenting · weeping · wailing · keening · elegiac · dirge-like · inconsolable
Subdued, lasting sadness
- somberGravely serious in mood
- drearyDull and depressing
- dismalDepressingly dark or dull
- bleakDreary and without cheer
morose · sullen · dour · joyless · cheerless · funereal · sepulchral · dark
Sad or despondent
- crestfallenSad from disappointment
- dejectedLow in spirits
- forlornSad and abandoned
- glumQuietly dejected
long-faced · despondent · dispirited · drooping · sagging · shuffling · sighing · slow
Causing or showing grief
- wistfulSadly longing for something
- ruefulExpressing sorrowful repentance
- soulfulExpressing deep emotion
- painedExpressing suffering or displeasure
sorrowful · plaintive · moping · frowning · pouting · grimacing · tear-stained · red-eyed
Exaggeratedly emotional in expression
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- affectedArtificially contrived behavior
- histrionicExaggeratedly emotional in behavior
performative · campy · hammy · over-the-top · self-pitying · bathetic · maudlin · lachrymose
sorrowful
Filled with grief
grief-stricken · tearful · lamenting · weeping · wailing · keening · elegiac · dirge-like · inconsolable · bereft
melancholy
Subdued, lasting sadness
bleak · morose · sullen · dour · joyless · cheerless · funereal · sepulchral · dark · depressing
downcast
Sad or despondent
- crestfallenSad from disappointment
- dejectedLow in spirits
- forlornSad and abandoned
glum · long-faced · despondent · dispirited · drooping · sagging · shuffling · sighing · slow · heavy
dolorous
Causing or showing grief
- wistfulSadly longing for something
- ruefulExpressing sorrowful repentance
- soulfulExpressing deep emotion
pained · sorrowful · plaintive · moping · frowning · pouting · grimacing · tear-stained · red-eyed · hollow-eyed
melodramatic
Exaggeratedly emotional in expression
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- affectedArtificially contrived behavior
histrionic · performative · campy · hammy · over-the-top · self-pitying · bathetic · maudlin · lachrymose · weepy
- fancy wordsgrandiloquent, magniloquent, sesquipedalian, pulchritudinous, tintinnabulation
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
- sombergloomy, bleak, dreary, dismal, melancholy