What's the difference between solemn and sombre?

Solemn


Definition:

  • (a.) Marked with religious rites and pomps; enjoined by, or connected with, religion; sacred.
  • (a.) Pertaining to a festival; festive; festal.
  • (a.) Stately; ceremonious; grand.
  • (a.) Fitted to awaken or express serious reflections; marked by seriousness; serious; grave; devout; as, a solemn promise; solemn earnestness.
  • (a.) Real; earnest; downright.
  • (a.) Affectedly grave or serious; as, to put on a solemn face.
  • (a.) Made in form; ceremonious; as, solemn war; conforming with all legal requirements; as, probate in solemn form.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) wearefriendlyfires.com Ceremoniously slow and with a mood of solemn self-satisfaction and reflective pride, the most I can say about this is every note of it is archetypal national anthem fodder.
  • (2) Facebook Twitter Pinterest China dismisses Trump call with Taiwan as ‘small trick’ However, Beijing’s public response has so far been measured, with the foreign ministry lodging a “solemn representation” with Washington and the foreign minister, Wang Yi, downplaying the development as “a petty move” by Taiwan.
  • (3) Holocaust survivors and government officials have gathered at the memorial site of the former concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany , in a solemn ceremony to commemorate the liberation of the camp 70 years ago.
  • (4) In Kentucky , county clerks issue marriage licenses, and someone else must “solemnize” the marriage.
  • (5) Referring to the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in what Beijing calls “the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression”, Hua said: “We solemnly urge the Japanese side to draw hard lessons from history.” Satellite images Chinese-built runway artificial island finished Read more China is planning a large-scale military parade to mark the end of the second world war in the Pacific.
  • (6) Reality, fantasy and war Call of Duty has never been a series to offer solemn commentary on the nature of war.
  • (7) Still, I like to believe that these small-scale ventures, too, make some contribution to a conversation without limits or proscriptions; the sine qua non of the sort of society that knows to keep the solemn and the pious at bay.
  • (8) He brings us his mackerel, and his marigolds, as a child just able to walk solemnly brings objects … a birdcage, or a colander … and deposits them as an offering before the attentive adult."
  • (9) Holding a Qur’an and looking solemn, Barrow was sworn in at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, where he has spent the past few days, and delivered his inaugural speech as president.
  • (10) It solemnly proclaimed Ireland's independence, appointed ambassadors to the Peace Conference, where they have not yet been bidden, passed an address to the free nations of the world, and made some pretence of framing orders for its domestic procedure.
  • (11) In short, these solemn written principles of engagement had not been agreed, written, or signed by anyone at the point Crosby was engaged by the Conservative party.
  • (12) 'No,' he said with his usual solemn deliberation, 'it was the downfall of a great people and a great civilisation.'
  • (13) He also produced this effect in some of his sculptures, for example Untitled (Funerary Box for a Lime Green Python) (1954), where a pair of solemn-looking palm leaves gives the work a consciously ritualistic tone.
  • (14) Right up until Sunday's first-round vote, the frenetic Sarkozy, known as the "president of bling" was apologising for what he called his lack of solemnity at the start of his presidency.
  • (15) Pistorius had solemnly entered the court wearing a grey suit and blue tie.
  • (16) Nato’s security guarantee is treaty commitment and all allies have made ... a solemn commitment to defend each other.
  • (17) Rakoff nodded in solemn agreement, although she had no idea who this Jerry person was.
  • (18) More arrived every minute, until, when an ambulance left carrying the bodies of Liu and Ramos, they formed a vast and silent honour guard, saluting solemnly in the flashing lights.
  • (19) In return, we give them a solemn pledge: that we shall keep their role secret.
  • (20) But the apology was delivered with enough solemnity to win some credit.

Sombre


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make somber, or dark; to make shady.
  • (a.) Dull; dusky; somewhat dark; gloomy; as, a somber forest; a somber house.
  • (a.) Melancholy; sad; grave; depressing; as, a somber person; somber reflections.
  • (n.) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Photograph: KHIZR KHAN This sombre, serene oasis overlooking the Potomac river might also prove the graveyard of Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US presidency.
  • (2) Seethetree Kingley Vale, Sussex Forget the colours of autumn; this place is sombre in colour and atmosphere but you will be walking among probably the oldest living organisms in Britain.
  • (3) Slowing growth, financial fragility, governments teetering on the brink of insolvency and default, and clear signs of a public backlash against the excesses of the rich and powerful: all have created a sombre backdrop to the invitation-only affair.
  • (4) King gave a sombre assessment of the government's challenge at a press conference to launch the Bank's quarterly inflation report.
  • (5) Top floor: a roomful of sombre youths vying for individual supremacy using some form of networked arcade strategy game that uses collectible cards.
  • (6) In sombre tones he did indeed acknowledge that there are no sunny uplands as we "now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war" .
  • (7) In March 1990, in a ceremony in the new Congress building built by Pinochet in his home town of Valparaiso - 80 miles from the capital, Santiago, and intended to remain well out of mind of the real centres of power - a sombre Pinochet handed the presidential sash over to Aylwin.
  • (8) Q has upped his gadget game Facebook Twitter Pinterest The brooding and sombre Skyfall scored a few points for post-modern playfulness via its introductory scene for the new Q, in which Ben Whishaw might as well have offered Bond a couple of Netflix vouchers and a year’s subscription to Cosmopolitan for all the wow factor his proffered “gadgets” achieved.
  • (9) Another report, Sir Derek Wanless's Securing Good Health for the Whole Population (2004), set out the sombre consequences of our slobby habits: life expectancy cut by nine years, increased coronary heart disease and diabetes, and a cost of £8.2bn to the economy.
  • (10) She’s very serious in her style, very well-informed in her style, it won’t be the same as David Cameron,” he said, welcoming the idea of a more sombre tone.
  • (11) In a sombre closing speech, Clegg warned of "a long hard road ahead", and said the economy was "our biggest concern" because "the recovery is fragile".
  • (12) A grand and sombre staircase - dark, looming, pitiless - leads up from the Axes to the exhibits, allowing Libeskind to play one last trick on the visitor by luring him up a final flight that goes nowhere, before his voice gives way to the memoranda of Jewish history.
  • (13) It is now recognized that as much as left ventricular dysfunction these ventricular arrhythmias are of sombre prognosis.
  • (14) South Africans have undergone sombre introspection of late with the economy slowing, unemployment sky highand, worst of all, violent unrest that included the killing of workers at the Lonmin platinum mine in August.
  • (15) Helen Hunt and John Hawkes are deservedly recognised for their fine performances in The Sessions, while Kathryn Bigelow 's sombre, gripping Zero Dark Thirty bags a quartet of nominations, burnishing its credentials as the dark horse of this year's Oscar race.
  • (16) There were reports this morning that Gaga was reluctant to perform after the death of Alexander McQueen last week and had told organisers she would only play a set that was suitably sombre (with images of McQueen projected as a backdrop apparently).
  • (17) In a sombre letter to his youngest child, Mohamed wrote: "Sorry because you were born where free people are behind bars, including your father."
  • (18) Although they may draw images of sombre and disciplined technicians in white coats, labs in the modern industrial context are a nebulous idea.
  • (19) Although relatively rare, stenosis must be diagnosed in view of its sombre spontaneous prognosis (one patient died 3 days after coronary arteriography), of the risk of underestimating its frequency, and of the hazards of selective coronary catheterization in such patients (one of our patients died 15 minutes after coronary exploration).
  • (20) In a sombre ceremony, the eight men were remembered and honoured by name as families and relatives paid their last respects.