tenebrous

Advancedzipf 1.44

Pronunciation

/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. 1.The tenebrous corridors of the abandoned hospital seemed to swallow the flashlight beam. (shadowy, dark)
  2. 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