bleak

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /blik/ UK /bliːk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
bare, cold, and cheerless; offering little hope

The future looked bleak for the struggling town.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · bare, cold, and cheerless;... desolate barren dreary cheerless grim gloomy austere forbidding

Opposites

cheerful hopeful lush inviting bright

Word family

Forms bleakness

Derived forms bleaklybleaknessbleakish

Related forms bleach blanch

Appears in

Tongue twisters (1)

See all

The Bleak Breeze
The bleak breeze blighted the bright broom blossoms.

Alternate /bl/ in bleak, blighted and blossoms with /bɹ/ in breeze, bright and broom. Start with the pairs bleak breeze and bright broom.

Simplified etymology

Bleak meant “shining” or “white” in Old English and comes from the same Germanic root as bleach. The senses “bare of vegetation” and “chilly” developed in the 16th century, followed by “cheerless” in the early 18th century.

Etymology

From Middle English bleke ('pale, wan'), from Old Norse bleikr ('pale') or Old English blāc ('pale, bright'), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- ('to shine').

bleikr Old Norse *blaikaz Proto-Germanic *bʰel- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# bleak

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /blik/
**IPA (UK):** /bliːk/

## Meanings
1. bare, cold, and cheerless; offering little hope

## Examples
- The future looked bleak for the struggling town.

## Synonyms
- desolate
- barren
- dreary
- cheerless
- grim
- gloomy
- austere
- forbidding

## Antonyms
- cheerful
- hopeful
- lush
- inviting
- bright

## Derived Forms
- bleakly
- bleakness
- bleakish

## Related Forms
- bleach
- blanch

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bleikr
- Root: *blaikaz
- Root: *bʰel-

## Etymology
From Middle English bleke ('pale, wan'), from Old Norse bleikr ('pale') or Old English blāc ('pale, bright'), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- ('to shine').

## AI Etymology
Bleak is from Middle English bleke ('pale, wan'), from Old Norse bleikr ('pale') or Old English blāc ('pale, bright'), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- ('to shine'). In present-day use, it means bare, cold, and cheerless; offering little hope. Derived formations include bleakly, bleakness, and bleakish. Related vocabulary includes bleach and blanch.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

markdown