drear vs sombre

drear

adj
  • Dreary. 

sombre

adj
  • Melancholic, gloomy, dreary, dismal; grim. 

  • Dull or dark in colour or brightness. 

  • Dark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit. 

  • Grave; extremely serious. 

verb
  • To make sombre or dark; to make shady. 

How often have the words drear and sombre occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )