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drear

English · Thesaurus

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drear¹

  • /dɹɪə/ UK
  • /dɹɪɚ/ US
  • /dɹɪɹ/ US
  • /dɹiə/ New Zealand
  • /dɹiːɹ/ Scotland
  • /dɹɛː/

Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Shortening of dreary.

adjective drearer · drearest

  1. literary, poetic Dreary. Earth raised up her head From the darkness dread and drear,

    Similar: bleak, dreary, cheerless, comfortless, dark, morose, depressing, desolate, dire, disconsolate, dismal, doleful

drear²

  • /dɹɪə/ UK
  • /dɹɪɚ/ US
  • /dɹɪɹ/ US
  • /dɹiə/ New Zealand
  • /dɹiːɹ/ Scotland
  • /dɹɛː/

Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Back-formation from dreary. Compare greed.

noun drears · dreare

  1. obsolete Gloom; sadness.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"drear." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/drear. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

drear. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/drear

Chicago

"drear." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/drear.

BibTeX
@misc{drear_2026,
  title = {drear},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/drear},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}