adj, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of sober form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   Causing more sober thought or concern.

   "It was a sobering thought that I had almost killed myself. That was something I wouldn't soon do on purpose again."

Adjective

1. 1
   tending to make sober or more serious wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

serious

Example

More examples

"The results of the study were sobering, to say the least."

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