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plaintive

[ pleyn-tiv ]

/ ˈpleɪn tɪv /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR plaintive ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

expressing sorrow or melancholy; mournful: a plaintive melody.

Origin of plaintive

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

SYNONYMS FOR plaintive

wistful, sorrowful, sad.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR plaintive ON THESAURUS.COM

ANTONYMS FOR plaintive

happy, joyful.

SEE ANTONYMS FOR plaintive ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM plaintive

plain·tive·ly, adverb plain·tive·ness, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH plaintive

plaintiff plaintive

Words nearby plaintive

plainsong, plainstones, plaint, plaintext, plaintiff, plaintive, plainview, plainville, plaister, plait, plaiting

Example sentences 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 forms of plaintive

plaintively, adverb plaintiveness, noun

Word Origin for plaintive

C14: from Old French plaintif grieving, from plainte plaint