Grimdark

//ˈɡɹɪmdɑːk// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The literary genre of speculative fiction that is amoral, dystopian, or violent. uncountable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere. slang

    "If your character is a more-or-less ordinary little girl fighting for her life as a usual thing, that's a fairly GRIMDARK setting; it implies that there isn't any Good authority with both the power and the will to protect them."

Example

More examples

"We're a grimdark world telling noblebright stories about ourselves."

Etymology

From grim (adjective) + dark (adjective), inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000 (its rulebook first published in September 1987): In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.