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Definition of pessimism : 1. A disposition to take the least hopeful view of things.
2. The opinion or doctrine that everything in nature is ordered for or tends to the worst, or that the world is wholly evil; - opposed to optimism.

Synonyms:

malism

apprehensiveness, anxiety, expectancy, dread, fear, expectation, uncertainty, foreboding, apprehension, contemplation, presumption, worriment, anticipation, envisioning, suspense

grief, blighted hope, nihilism, lack of expectation, low spirits, sadness, cynicism, gloom, unhappiness

desperation, abandonment, discouragement, heartlessness, glumness, gloominess, cheerlessness, forlornness, hopelessness, bleakness, anguish, despondency, misery, despair, moroseness, dispiritedness, melancholy, spiritlessness, dejection, depression, disheartenment, downheartedness

Usage examples:

• Perhaps, however, in the last analysis optimism and pessimism are subjective- the expression of temperament or individual experience, since the facts of life are the same, whether seen through Schopenhauer's eyes or through Emerson's. - "Brief History of English and American Literature", Henry A. Beers.
• Meynell noticed and rebuked in himself a kind of settled pessimism as to Hester's conduct and future. - "The Case of Richard Meynell", Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
• Let us not forget, however, that spiritual pessimism is nothing new, whether among Jews or non- Jews. - "The Allied Countries and the Jews", Hyman Gerson Enelow.