saturnine
8 synonyms and 6 antonyms for saturnine, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Adj — Describes someone who tends to be cold, distant and gloomy by nature.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. adj
Describes someone who tends to be cold, distant and gloomy by nature.
Opposites
2. adj
Describes a place or atmosphere that feels dull, dark and depressing.
“This saturnine line of thinking proceeds as the clouds overhead start to coalesce and the sky takes on its regular clothy P.M. weight.”
Opposites
Etymology
From Middle English saturnine, satournine, satournyne, saturnin, saturnyn, saturnyne (“pertaining to or under the influence of the planet Saturn; line on the palm of the hand associated with Saturn”), from Old French saturnine, saturnin (modern French saturnin (“of, pertaining to, resembling or containing lead, plumbic...
Full origin of saturnine →