The optimist looks into a mirror and becomes more optimistic, the pessimist more pessimistic.
Source: tatoeba (21262)
Pessimistic
//ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk//
Synonyms for "pessimistic" (66 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (14)
Strong matches (19)
Related words (33)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Antonyms
2 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesRelated terms
3 entriesderived
8 entriesderived from
1 entrieshas context
1 entriesrelated to
15 entriessimilar
9 entriesTranslations
69 translations across 36 languages.
Arabic
2 entries- مُتَشَائِم adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- مُتَشَائِم adj (always expecting the worst)
Armenian
2 entries- հոռետեսական adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- հոռետեսական adj (always expecting the worst)
Belarusian
1 entries- песімісты́чны adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Bulgarian
1 entries- песимисти́чен adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Catalan
2 entries- pessimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimista adj (always expecting the worst)
Chinese Cantonese
1 entries- 悲觀 /悲观 adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Chinese Mandarin
2 entries- 悲觀的 /悲观的 adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- 悲觀的 /悲观的 adj (always expecting the worst)
Czech
1 entries- pesimistický adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Danish
1 entries- pessimistisk adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Finnish
4 entries- pessimistinen adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimistinen adj (always expecting the worst)
- synkkä adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- synkkämielinen adj (always expecting the worst)
French
2 entries- pessimiste adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimiste adj (always expecting the worst)
Galician
2 entries- pesimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesimista adj (always expecting the worst)
German
2 entries- pessimistisch adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimistisch adj (always expecting the worst)
Greek
2 entries- απαισιόδοξος adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- πεσιμιστικός adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Hebrew
1 entries- פסימי adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Hungarian
4 entries- borúlátó adj (always expecting the worst)
- pesszimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesszimista adj (always expecting the worst)
- pesszimisztikus adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Icelandic
2 entries- bölsýnn adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- svartsýnn adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Indonesian
2 entries- pesimistis adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesimistis adj (always expecting the worst)
Italian
2 entries- pessimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimistico adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Japanese
2 entries- 悲観的 adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- 悲観的 adj (always expecting the worst)
Korean
1 entries- 비관적 adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Māori
1 entries- (ngākau) hākerekere adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Norwegian
2 entries- pessimistisk adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimistisk adj (always expecting the worst)
Persian
2 entries- بد بینانه adj (always expecting the worst)
- بدبین adj (always expecting the worst)
Plautdietsch
2 entries- dunkelsiedich adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- dunkelsiedich adj (always expecting the worst)
Polish
1 entries- pesymistyczny adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Portuguese
2 entries- pessimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimista adj (always expecting the worst)
Russian
2 entries- пессимисти́чный adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- пессимисти́чный adj (always expecting the worst)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- pesimističan adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesimističan adj (always expecting the worst)
- песимистичан adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- песимистичан adj (always expecting the worst)
Slovak
1 entries- pesimistický adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Spanish
3 entries- agorero adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesimista adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pesimista adj (always expecting the worst)
Swedish
2 entries- pessimistisk adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- pessimistisk adj (always expecting the worst)
Thai
2 entries- มองโลกในแง่ร้าย adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- มองโลกในแง่ร้าย adj (always expecting the worst)
Turkish
3 entries- karamsar adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- kötümser adj (always expecting the worst)
- pesimist adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Ukrainian
1 entries- песимісти́чний adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
Volapük
2 entries- badimik adj (marked by pessimism and little hopefulness)
- badimik adj (always expecting the worst)
Sample sentences
14 total sentences available.
He has a tendency to be pessimistic.
Source: tatoeba (302923)
He is extremely pessimistic and has no aspirations.
Source: tatoeba (302995)
Sick people tend to be pessimistic.
Source: tatoeba (318486)
Showing 4 of 14 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.