sombre

som·bre

(sŏm′bər)

adj. Chiefly British

Variant of somber.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sombre

(ˈsɒmbə) or

somber

adj

1. dismal; melancholy: a sombre mood.

2. dim, gloomy, or shadowy

3. (of colour, clothes, etc) sober, dull, or dark

[C18: from French, from Vulgar Latin subumbrāre (unattested) to shade, from Latin sub beneath + umbra shade]

ˈsombrely, ˈsomberly adv

ˈsombreness, ˈsomberness n

sombrous adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.	1.	sombre - lacking brightness or color; dull; "drab faded curtains"; "sober Puritan grey"; "children in somber brown clothes" somber, drab, sober colorless, colourless - weak in color; not colorful
	2.	sombre - grave or even gloomy in character; "solemn and mournful music"; "a suit of somber black"; "a somber mood" melancholy, somber cheerless, depressing, uncheerful - causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy; "the economic outlook is depressing"; "something cheerless about the room"; "a moody and uncheerful person"; "an uncheerful place"

sombre

adjective

1. gloomy, sad, sober, grave, dismal, melancholy, mournful, lugubrious, joyless, funereal, doleful, sepulchral The pair were in sombre mood.
gloomy happy, bright, sunny, cheerful, upbeat (informal), lively, genial, chirpy (informal), effusive, full of beans

2. dark, dull, gloomy, sober, drab a worried official in sombre black
dark bright, colourful, dazzling, gaudy, garish

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

داكِنكالِح، جدّي، قاتِم

ponurýtmavý

dystermørk

düster

sombre

dapur, òungbúinnòungbúinn, myrkur

fosco

drūmsnopietnstumšs

mørk og dyster

ciddîdonuk karamsar kasvetli

忧郁暗淡的

sombre

somber (US) [ˈsɒmbəʳ] ADJ

1. (= sober) → sombrío
a sombre prospect → una perspectiva sombría
in sombre hues → en colores sombríos

2. (= pessimistic) → pesimista
he was sombre about our chances → se mostró pesimista acerca de nuestras posibilidades

3. (= melancholy) → melancólico

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sombre

[ˈsɒmbə^r] (British) somber (US) adj

[person, mood, expression] → sombre

[colour, place] → morne

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sombre

, (US) somber

adj

(= dark) → dunkel; (= gloomy) → düster

(= grave, serious) prospect → trüb, düster; message → trüb, traurig; news → traurig; face → düster; person → düster, finster; music → trist, trauervoll; in sombre mood → in trüber or düsterer Stimmung

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sombre

somber (Am) [ˈsɒmbəʳ] adj (mood, person) → triste, tetro/a; (colour) → scuro/a
a sombre prospect → una triste prospettiva

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

sombre

(American usually) somber (ˈsombə) adjective

1. dark (and gloomy). Black is a sombre colour.

2. grave; serious. He was in a sombre mood.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Through the gateway we passed into the avenue, where the wheels were again hushed amid the leaves, and the old trees shot their branches in a sombre tunnel over our heads.

Then we gazed round us at the high, thin window of old stained glass, the oak panelling, the stags' heads, the coats of arms upon the walls, all dim and sombre in the subdued light of the central lamp.

View in context

The day was chill and sombre. Overhead was a gray expanse of cloud, slightly stirred, however, by a breeze; so that a gleam of flickering sunshine might now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path.

Continually, indeed, as it stole onward, the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintance and events of sombre hue.

View in context

The dress was a sombre grayish beige, untrimmed and unbraided, and she wore a small turban of the same dull hue, relieved only by a suspicion of white feather in the side.

View in context

In spite of her feeling of haste, she paused a moment and looked fearfully through the vestibule to the wide, sombre hall beyond, her thoughts in a whirl.

View in context

There was a faint glimmering of the coming day in the sky; but it rather aggrevated than relieved the gloom of the scene: the sombre light only serving to pale that which the street lamps afforded, without shedding any warmer or brighter tints upon the wet house-tops, and dreary streets.

View in context

Tahiti is a lofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divine silent valleys; there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur and plash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life from immemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways.

View in context

The Grève had then that sinister aspect which it preserves to-day from the execrable ideas which it awakens, and from the sombre town hall of Dominique Bocador, which has replaced the Pillared House.

View in context

With the sun hanging low on its western limit, the expanse of the grass-lands framed in the coun- ter-scarps of the rising ground took on a gorgeous and sombre aspect.

View in context

It had been not so livid then, and its eyes not so sombre.

View in context

By entering into harmony with his environment, Ssu-K`ung T`u allowed his splendid vitality to find expression, and after the lapse of a thousand years these glowing pages torn from the book of life have drifted towards us like rose-leaves down a sombre stream.