plaintive
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of plaintive
First recorded in 1350–1400; plaint + -ive; replacing Middle English plaintif, from Middle French
Explanation
Plaintive is an adjective for describing someone or something with a pleading, sorrowful, desperate tone. If you have ever heard the plaintive howl of a wolf, then you know what we are getting at here. A plaint, as in complaint, is an expression of sorrow or grief. This word has also been bent a little at the ends to become plaintiff or complainant — the sufferer — in a lawsuit. So, whether you are hearing a plaintive tone in a courtroom, at a funeral, or in the wild (as in an animal's plaintive howl), you can be assured that someone or something desires something desperately.
Vocabulary lists containing plaintive
Grade 11, List 1
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Things Fall Apart
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Night
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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.
As he sings on “Come Back,” the album’s plaintive opener, “I had a really strange reaction, delayed I think by simple fear, if I don’t listen I can’t hear.”
From Salon • May 15, 2026
Gladiator II and Hamnet star Mescal has a huge social media fanbase and mentioned last December he was loving a song called Evelyn, a plaintive folk ballad from Michael's second album Thin White Road.
From BBC • Jan. 22, 2026
Testing the human animal’s tolerance for plaintive fiddles, wheezy bagpipes, Peter Coyote and the whispery recitations of diary entries, “The American Revolution” is the most Ken Burns-y of Ken Burns series.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025
This pageant of puppetry includes a flutter of butterflies, a goat with a plaintive bleat, a menagerie of wild animals and, at one point, a school of glowing fish.
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2025
I listened to their song, distant and plaintive.
From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz
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.
