dismay

1. 1.

   the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles

   Synonymsdiscouragementdisheartenment

   Broaderdespair

   Narrowerintimidation
2. 2.

   fear resulting from the awareness of danger

   Synonymsalarmconsternation

   Broaderfear

1. 1.

   lower someone's spirits; make downhearted

   “These news depressed her”

   “The bad state of her child's health demoralizes her”

   Synonymsdepressdejectcast downget downdispiritdemoralizedemoralise

   Broaderdiscourage

   Narrowerchill
2. 2.

   fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised

   “I was horrified at the thought of being late for my interview”

   “The news of the executions horrified us”

   Synonymsalarmappalappallhorrify

   Broaderfrighten

   Narrowershock

Other forms of dismay

plural

dismays·

past tense

dismayed·

present participle

dismaying·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about dismay

What does dismay mean?

dismay means "the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dismay?

dismay has 2 syllables: di-smay. The stress falls on "smay". In IPA it is /dɪˈsmeɪ/.

What is another word for dismay?

Close synonyms include discouragement, disheartenment, alarm, consternation, depress. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dismay a common word?

dismay is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.