What does "miserabilist" mean?

One who is unhappy, or extols being miserable as a virtue; a philosopher of pessimism.

What is a synonym for "miserabilist"?

Common synonyms include: buzzkill, buzzkill, cold fish, dampener, downer, fun sponge.

Pronounced //ˈmɪzəɹəbəlɪst//.

//ˈmɪzəɹəbəlɪst// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
One who is unhappy, or extols being miserable as a virtue; a philosopher of pessimism.
"Gissing is never more of a miserabilist than when trying to be light-hearted."

Adjective

1
Miserable, pessimistic.
"This is a radical difference between the naturalism of the miserabilist approach, and the naturalism practiced by the Romanian New Wave."

"Gissing is never more of a miserabilist than when trying to be light-hearted."

Variant of miserable + -ist, with interconsonant -i- added due to difficulty or lack of flow in pronouncing miserablist.

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