plangent

American  

[plan-juhnt] / ˈplæn dʒənt /

adjective

1. resounding loudly, especially with a plaintive sound, as a bell.

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plangent British  

/ ˈplændʒənt /

adjective

1. having a loud deep sound

2. resonant and mournful in sound

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Other Word Forms

• plangency
  noun
• plangently
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of plangent

1815–25; < Latin plangent- (stem of plangēns ), present participle of plangere to beat, lament. See plain ², -ent

Explanation

Any sound described as plangent echoes in a loud and often mournful way. There may be certain sad songs with plangent choruses that make you cry every time you hear them. The haunting peal of a church bell is plangent, and a poet's plangent, resonant tones when she reads her latest work might send chills down your spine. The adjective plangent isn't one you hear very often (it appears most frequently in a literary context), but it's good for capturing a specific sound that evokes an emotional response. Plangent originally meant "beating with a loud sound," from the Latin plangere, "to strike or beat."

Example Sentences

Plangent blue dominates against the backdrop of black-and-white text.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2022

The lines he proclaims undoubtedly authentic: "Plangent as doom, my dear boy—look."

From Time Magazine Archive

Plangent as music itself, serene as sculpture, with smiling lips magically crimson, adorably human, she finished her first concerto.

From Sinister Street, vol. 1 by MacKenzie, Compton

Plangent, hidden from eyes, Somewhere an eukaleli thrills and cries And stabs with pain the night's brown savagery.

From 1914 and Other Poems by Brooke, Rupert

Plangent is from the Latin plango, to strike, to beat.

From Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson by Stevenson, Robert Louis