Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Mournful: Expressing deep sorrow or grief, often with a sense of loss or tragedy.
   • Doleful: Exhibiting sadness or melancholy in a manner that evokes pity or is full of lamentation.
   • Lugubrious: Looking or sounding sad, gloomy, and dismal in a way that seems exaggerated or prolonged.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Khuôn mặt anh ấy trông thật sầu thảm. (His face looked truly mournful.)
  • Bầu không khí trong căn phòng thật sầu thảm sau tin đó. (The atmosphere in the room was utterly doleful after that news.)
  • Những bản nhạc sầu thảm vang lên trong đêm. (Lugubrious music played through the night.)

Advanced Usage

• Used to describe not only people's expressions or moods but also atmospheres, sounds (like music or cries), scenes, or stories that are permeated with profound sadness.
  • Cảnh tượng sau trận bão thật sầu thảm. (The scene after the storm was a mournful sight.)

Variants and Related Words

• Sầu muộn (adj): sorrowful, heavy-hearted; focuses more on internal, lingering sadness.
• Thảm thương (adj): pitiful, lamentable; often emphasizes a state that deserves compassion or pity.
• Buồn thảm (adj): sad and grievous; a close synonym combining general sadness with a grievous quality.

Synonyms

• Mournful: Feeling or expressing sorrow, often for someone's death.
• Doleful: Expressing sorrow; mournful.
• Lugubrious: Looking or sounding sad and dismal.
• Melancholy: A feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.
• Sorrowful: Feeling or showing grief.

Antonyms

• Vui vẻ (adj): joyful, happy.
• Hân hoan (adj): jubilant, overjoyed.
• Rạng rỡ (adj): radiant, beaming.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Sầu thảm bi ai: Profoundly grievous and tragic; describes an extreme depth of sorrow.
  • Câu chuyện của họ là một bi kịch sầu thảm bi ai. (Their story is a profoundly grievous tragedy.)
• Nỗi buồn sầu thảm: A deep, grievous sadness.
  • Nỗi buồn sầu thảm ấy cứ đeo bám cô. (That doleful sadness kept clinging to her.)

adj

1. mournful, doleful