Etymology
Origin of keening
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.
Gilgamesh’s lament is not the stylized keening of epic tradition—not Achilles’ highfalutin howls after Hector strikes down Patroclus—but something rawer, humbler, more recognizably human.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Shift to Sport mode and the engine will hold at a high, keening rpm, trying to charge the battery faster than the driver can drain it.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 25, 2025
The tone of his voice is high, a keening sound.
From BBC • Oct. 19, 2024
He’s been lauded for sounding like a vestige of another age — his supple, keening tenor the result of years of apprenticeship to the Pakistani artists Ustad Saami and Farida Khanum.
From New York Times • May 10, 2024
“Are you all right?” he asked, taking in the sight of Taisin and Kaede, the queer little body on the floor, the keening mother.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
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.
