dreary
/ˈdɹɪɚi/adjective, noun
dreary is spelled D-R-E-A-R-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dreary means “Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in dreary?
| Letters | 6: D-R-E-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.2 times per million words; the 26,092nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dreary?
Dreary appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dreary?
- UK /ˈdɹɪəɹi/
- /ˈdɹɪɹi/
- US /ˈdɹɪɚi/
Dreary has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-deary.wav, En-us-dreary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with dreary?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dreary from its last stressed vowel (/ɪəɹi/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: yarder.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of dreary
- drearier comparative
- more dreary comparative
- dreariest superlative
- most dreary superlative
- drearies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dreary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.
- 2
obsoleteGrievous, dire; appalling.
noun
- 1
rareA dreary person or thing.
In the glow of this project Steele manages to forget altogether the parade of donnish and scholastic drearies, the barricades of schoolbooks, texts, examinations with which he has dealt so faithfully.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dreary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense drab:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | terne, insipide, maussade |
| German | öde, trostlos, trüb, freudlos |
| Portuguese | melancólico |
| Spanish | aburrido, triste |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dreary come from?
From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“sad”), from Proto-West Germanic *dreuʀag, from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian trurich (“sad, dreary”), West Frisian treurich (“sad, dreary”), Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrugr, dreyrigr (“bloody, gory”), whence Icelandic dreyrugur (“bloody”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).