How to Use pessimism in a Sentence

pessimism

noun
  • Although the economy shows signs of improving, a sense of pessimism remains.
  • There was some pessimism in the air.
    — Charlotte Observer, 24 Oct. 2025
  • My pessimism about whether this can work is hard to shake, though.
    — Star Tribune, 3 Aug. 2020
  • That’s a signal that full pessimism is baked in!
    — Brett Owens, Forbes.com, 17 May 2026
  • Maybe the George Floyd protests will change that racial pessimism.
    — John Blake, CNN, 1 Aug. 2020
  • Reasons for pessimism are clear.
    — Charlie Campbell, Time, 27 Oct. 2025
  • His pessimism was very profound.
    — Amir Ahmadi Arian, The Dial, 15 Jan. 2026
  • This is not a call for pessimism, but rather one for perspective.
    — Ben Marks and Brett Angel, Star Tribune, 17 Apr. 2021
  • Don’t let pessimism about the world keep you from living fully.
    — Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News, 26 July 2024
  • Church was not inclined to Cole’s pessimism.
    — Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • Fear is not ours; pessimism does not belong to us; defeat is not our choice.
    — Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone, 20 Jan. 2022
  • The level of pessimism dipped to an all-time low of 2 percent.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 28 Sep. 2021
  • Right now, this market seems possessed by pessimism.
    — Jim Cramer, CNBC, 25 Jan. 2026
  • Within hours, the doubts had grown into pessimism.
    — Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Fear and pessimism are easy to catch, but so too is calmness and optimism.
    — Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2021
  • One reason may be a deep pessimism about what is possible.
    — Audrey Sasson, New York Daily News, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Asked recently to expand on her pessimism, gas was the first thing on her mind.
    — Eve Washington, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2022
  • Marks wrote in a memo at the peak of market pessimism in 2008.
    — Bywill Daniel, Fortune, 11 July 2023
  • So much of the pessimism and the despair that fueled the piece has even greater purchase now.
    — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 10 June 2026
  • Yet as dire as their fate looks, some flowers bloom amid the gloom, taking the edge off the book’s pessimism.
    — New York Times, 5 June 2018
  • But for me, there’s one very big thing with the whole notion of optimism and pessimism.
    — latimes.com, 25 May 2018
  • Such events do seem to add to the pessimism about the protection of basic rights around the world.
    — The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Apr. 2018
  • This is fueling pessimism about any deal being reached this year.
    — Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 3 Dec. 2025
  • And then this year amid economic pessimism, Democrats slipped with this group.
    — Anthony Salvanto, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, CBS News, 28 Aug. 2022
  • Markets have been down the past three weeks, in part on pessimism about a deal on more stimulus.
    — Washington Post, 22 Sep. 2020
  • On the streets, there is a mix of hope, apathy, and pessimism about what the future holds.
    — Danny McDonald, BostonGlobe.com, 11 May 2022
  • Madrid fans have been stuck in the realm of pessimism which saw their club experience a bad run of form from.
    — SI.com, 11 Feb. 2018
  • Rather than optimism, there is pessimism.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2026
  • The book thrums with a newfound pessimism; Ariely seems to have lost faith in his old parlor tricks.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2023
  • Perhaps the pessimism at the heart of the song did refer merely to football.
    — Jonathan Wilson, SI.com, 12 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pessimism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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