Plaintive
adjective
Expressing sadness or sorry.
He made a plaintive cry when he found out his dog had passed away.
Often appears as...
- plaintive cry
- plaintive melody
adjective
Expressing sadness or sorry.
He made a plaintive cry when he found out his dog had passed away.
Often appears as...
- plaintive cry
- plaintive melody
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Tone
Use 'plaintive' to describe sounds conveying a deep emotional tone of sadness.
Her voice was plaintive as she spoke of the disaster.
Pro Tip 2/3Musical Context
'Plaintive' often describes music or sounds, suggesting a haunting or sorrowful quality.
The violin's plaintive melody echoed through the hall.
Pro Tip 3/3Personification
Can be used to give human emotion to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
The wind carried a plaintive whisper that seemed to mourn the end of summer.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Tone
Use 'plaintive' to describe sounds conveying a deep emotional tone of sadness.
Her voice was plaintive as she spoke of the disaster.
Pro Tip 2/3Musical Context
'Plaintive' often describes music or sounds, suggesting a haunting or sorrowful quality.
The violin's plaintive melody echoed through the hall.
Pro Tip 3/3Personification
Can be used to give human emotion to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
The wind carried a plaintive whisper that seemed to mourn the end of summer.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Tone
Use 'plaintive' to describe sounds conveying a deep emotional tone of sadness.
Her voice was plaintive as she spoke of the disaster.
Pro Tip 2/3Musical Context
'Plaintive' often describes music or sounds, suggesting a haunting or sorrowful quality.
The violin's plaintive melody echoed through the hall.
Pro Tip 3/3Personification
Can be used to give human emotion to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
The wind carried a plaintive whisper that seemed to mourn the end of summer.
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Video examples
What time is it on Mars?...
And so he'll put foil all over the windows and dark curtains and shades because it also affects your families. And so here I was living in kind of this darkened environment, but so was he. And he'd gotten used to it. But then I would get these plaintive emails from him when he was at work.
Video examples
Tracking Plastic Sea to...
our work and remembering our and very important history in the ways that we have persisted and overcame in nature even when nature was hostile to us we can turn to the plaintive lyrics of Billie Holiday's strange fruit to
Video examples
How batteries work -...
You probably know the feeling. Your phone utters its final plaintive "bleep" and cuts out in the middle of your call. In that moment, you may feel more like throwing your battery across the room than singing its praises,
Video examples
Leopard Seal Kills...
The chick responds and they slowly home in on one another. The plaintive entreaties of the chick stimulate the adult to regurgitate a mouthful of fish.
Video examples
What time is it on Mars?...
And so he'll put foil all over the windows and dark curtains and shades because it also affects your families. And so here I was living in kind of this darkened environment, but so was he. And he'd gotten used to it. But then I would get these plaintive emails from him when he was at work.
Video examples
Tracking Plastic Sea to...
our work and remembering our and very important history in the ways that we have persisted and overcame in nature even when nature was hostile to us we can turn to the plaintive lyrics of Billie Holiday's strange fruit to
Video examples
How batteries work -...
You probably know the feeling. Your phone utters its final plaintive "bleep" and cuts out in the middle of your call. In that moment, you may feel more like throwing your battery across the room than singing its praises,
Video examples
Leopard Seal Kills...
The chick responds and they slowly home in on one another. The plaintive entreaties of the chick stimulate the adult to regurgitate a mouthful of fish.
Example 1 of 4
Quote examples
Tina Brown
American Editor
With so many part-time people on - and not on - the job, corporate America has started to feel like it's on a permanent maternity leave. Colleagues are an amorphous, free-floating army of rotating waifs whose voicemails are clogged with plaintive requests from their own offices for missing information.
Quote examples
Linda Grant
British Novelist
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a tidy person, and the piles of unread books on the coffee table and by my bed have a plaintive, pleading quality to me - 'Read me, please!
Quote examples
Johann Johannsson
Icelander Composer
Brass has a very distinctive sound. It's delicate but powerful, but it's also melancholic and plaintive.
Quote examples
Lydia M. Child
American Activist
The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.
Quote examples
Tina Brown
American Editor
With so many part-time people on - and not on - the job, corporate America has started to feel like it's on a permanent maternity leave. Colleagues are an amorphous, free-floating army of rotating waifs whose voicemails are clogged with plaintive requests from their own offices for missing information.
Quote examples
Linda Grant
British Novelist
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a tidy person, and the piles of unread books on the coffee table and by my bed have a plaintive, pleading quality to me - 'Read me, please!
Quote examples
Johann Johannsson
Icelander Composer
Brass has a very distinctive sound. It's delicate but powerful, but it's also melancholic and plaintive.
Quote examples
Lydia M. Child
American Activist
The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.
Example 1 of 4
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