plaintive

[ pleyn-tiv ]

/ ˈpleɪn tɪv /

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adjective

expressing sorrow or melancholy; mournful: a plaintive melody.

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of plaintive

1350–1400; plaint + -ive; replacing Middle English plaintif < Middle French

SYNONYMS FOR plaintive

wistful, sorrowful, sad.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR plaintive ON THESAURUS.COM

ANTONYMS FOR plaintive

happy, joyful.

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Related formsplain·tive·ly, adverbplain·tive·ness, noun

Can be confusedplaintiff plaintive

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for plaintive

Hamer declared in her plaintive, outspoken way: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!”
Remembering Civil Rights Heroine Fannie Lou Hamer: 'I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired'|Lottie L. Joiner|September 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Hence the plaintive email from inside the bunker at Walmart in February.
Walmart’s Anti-Union Wage Plans Earn a Cold Shoulder From Big Cities|Daniel Gross|July 11, 2013|DAILY BEAST
What a strange, plaintive philosophy for someone whose profession involved sitting alone most of the day: love the world.
Learning From Carlos Fuentes, One Year On|Ethan Shaskan Bumas|May 15, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He also has a precocious attraction to his favorite nurse, Ingrid, who sings to him every night in a “plaintive voice.”
Juvenilia: A Bibliography|Eric Puchner|February 15, 2010|DAILY BEAST

Kage's friend, a strawberry blond who landed a small part, sent me a plaintive email from the set last week.
Tarantino's Nazis|Caroline Winter|December 17, 2008|DAILY BEAST
Had he been an Italian bird, Ovid would have had a plaintive tale to tell about him.
My Garden Acquaintance|James Russell Lowell
He saw a great chance slipping from him, and his voice was plaintive.
The Castle Inn|Stanley John Weyman
She was not pretty and looked weak and poor, but she had a plaintive and a good face, though it was still a little wild.
Bleak House|Charles Dickens
But the plaintive tone of such a man asking such a question was significant and interesting and—sad.
The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II|Burton J. Hendrick
The song passed gradually into an elegy, plaintive and full of pain.
Quo Vadis|Henryk Sienkiewicz

British Dictionary definitions for plaintive

plaintive

/ (ˈpleɪntɪv) /

adjective

expressing melancholy; mournful

Derived Formsplaintively, adverbplaintiveness, noun

Word Origin for plaintive

C14: from Old French plaintif grieving, from plainte plaint

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012