mournful
Americanadjective
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feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful; sad.
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of or relating to mourning for the dead.
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causing grief or lament.
a mournful occasion.
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gloomy, somber, or dreary, as in appearance or character.
mournful shadows.
adjective
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evoking grief; sorrowful
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gloomy; sad
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of mournful
First recorded in 1375–1425, mournful is from the late Middle English word morneful. See mourn, -ful
Explanation
A mournful person is someone who is full of sorrow, like a little girl who has just lost her new puppy. Mournful is a word that is often associated with someone who has experienced the death of someone close to them. A person would feel mournful if their loved one had just died. Mournful can also describe the expression of sad feelings, like a person dressed in black and sobbing into a handkerchief. You would not be mournful if you had just failed a quiz, but you would be mournful if your twenty-year marriage had just failed.
Vocabulary lists containing mournful
List 4
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"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling
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Chains
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Billy Bob Thornton, “Landman” “Noah Wyle and Sterling K. Brown are locks to repeat, and Mark Ruffalo’s mournful ‘Task’ hero is another potential winner.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
“You put into me the perception of the incomparable,” Bettany version says in a bitterly mournful prayer at the end of the second episode, “and then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre.”
From Salon • May 16, 2026
"It's kind of a mournful song," he says, choosing his words carefully.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
The wide tonal variation continues with “Don’t Let Go,” a gorgeous midtempo weeper with pedal-steel guitar, tinkly piano and mournful fiddle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026
All the whos, whats, whys, whens, and wheres you never knew you needed to know, I headed out, giving the cowbell above the door a mournful clang as I left.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
