tenebrous
Advancedzipf 1.44Pronunciation
/ˈtɛnɪbrəs/(TEN-ih-brus)
Part of speech
adjectiveformal/literary
Chinese
昏暗的;阴暗的(也指气氛)
Definition
Dark, shadowy, or obscure; conveying a sense of gloom or mystery.
Word family
- tenebrosity/ˌtɛnɪˈbrɒsɪti/(n)黑暗
Collocations
- tenebrous depths
- tenebrous atmosphere
- tenebrous forest
- tenebrous passage
Examples
- 1.The tenebrous corridors of the abandoned hospital seemed to swallow the flashlight beam. (shadowy, dark)
- 2.His novels create a tenebrous world where morality is perpetually ambiguous. (gloomy, obscure)
Synonyms
- murky/ˈmɜːrki/— dark and gloomy
- stygian/ˈstɪdʒiən/— extremely dark, literary
- caliginous/kəˈlɪdʒɪnəs/— misty, dim — very rare
Etymology
from Latin "tenebrae" (darkness) — the same root gives us "Tenebrae," the Catholic Holy Week service where candles are extinguished one by one