DOURNESS Synonyms: 46 Similar and Opposite Words

dourness

noun

Definition of dourness

as in gruffness

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of dourness April’s showers have brought not flowers to the Reds, but dourness. — C. Trent Rosecrans, New York Times, 7 May 2026 With its single Xenomorph antagonist, its cramped environment, and its fairly helpless cast of characters, a video-game adaptation sounds like an exercise in pure dourness. — Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2025 But the music constantly resists her dourness. — Ew Staff Published, EW.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dourness

Noun

Mackay and Turner are both excellent, two movie stars who seem totally game to be asked to move with real gruffness.

— Sam Bodrojan, IndieWire, 17 June 2026
But then Popper smiled and the arrival of opening day momentarily mellowed his gruffness.

— Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026

Definition of gruffness

Noun

Perhaps the greatest testament to Morocco’s obduracy came late in normal time, when Rodri — a central midfielder being deployed as a central defender — strode forward and shot, more in hope than in expectation, from 35 yards.

— Rory Smith, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022
But a year later, more than two dozen of them remain stuck in Afghanistan, stalled by bureaucratic wrangling, the vagaries of international diplomacy and the obduracy of the Taliban government.

— Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2022

Definition of obduracy

Noun

Vicki brushes it off, and even Shannon can’t defend her friend’s callousness.

— Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026
Swift was born into the Anglo-Irish Protestant elite, and the text satires both the callousness of his class and a then-ascendant approach to morality and politics that held that all aspects of life could be cooked down to a pure numerical value.

— Dónal Gill, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026

Definition of callousness

Browse Nearby Words

dourly

dourness

douse

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Style

“Dourness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dourness. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of dourness

noun

Example Sentences

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