mournful
Full of sorrow
Mournful describes something expressing or suggesting grief or sorrow.
A mournful expression shows sadness; a mournful melody evokes melancholy even without words.
The word often describes sounds—a dog's mournful howl, the mournful wail of a distant train.
Something mournful needn't involve actual mourning; it conveys the quality of grief rather than grief itself.
Mournful commemorative music
- threnodyMemorial song of grief
- requiemMass for the deceased
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
- elegyPoem lamenting the departed
plaintive · keening · valedictory · solemn · funereal · sepulchral · dolorous · poignant
State following loss
- sorrowDeep emotional distress
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- lossBeing without something
- tearsViolent pulls apart
lament · anguish · heartache · mourner · funeral · eulogy · wake · shiva
Subdued, lasting sadness
- despondentDeeply discouraged, hopeless
- forlornSad and abandoned
- sorrowfulFilled with grief
- dolefulExpressing deep sorrow
lugubrious · woebegone · heavyhearted · crestfallen · glum · morose · blue · pensive
Dark and dispiriting
- dismalDepressingly dark or dull
- bleakDreary and without cheer
- drearyDull and depressing
- grimHarsh and foreboding
desolate · brooding · subdued · dark · overcast · shadowed · leaden · cheerless
Beyond possibility of success
- inconsolableUnable to be comforted
- disconsolateHopelessly sad, beyond comfort
- brokenheartedOverwhelmed with grief
- heartbrokenOverwhelmed with grief
anguished · grief-stricken · devastated · crushed · wretched · tormented · suffering · distraught
dirge
Mournful commemorative music
- threnodyMemorial song of grief
- requiemMass for the deceased
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
elegy · plaintive · keening · valedictory · solemn · funereal · sepulchral · dolorous · poignant · nostalgic
bereavement
State following loss
tears · lament · anguish · heartache · mourner · funeral · eulogy · wake · shiva · condolences
melancholy
Subdued, lasting sadness
- despondentDeeply discouraged, hopeless
- forlornSad and abandoned
- sorrowfulFilled with grief
doleful · lugubrious · woebegone · heavyhearted · crestfallen · glum · morose · blue · pensive · wistful
gloomy
Dark and dispiriting
grim · desolate · brooding · subdued · dark · overcast · shadowed · leaden · cheerless · joyless
hopeless
Beyond possibility of success
- inconsolableUnable to be comforted
- disconsolateHopelessly sad, beyond comfort
- brokenheartedOverwhelmed with grief
heartbroken · anguished · grief-stricken · devastated · crushed · wretched · tormented · suffering · distraught · shattered
regretful
Feeling sorrow over actions
- ruefulExpressing sorrowful repentance
- repentantFeeling sorrow for misdeeds
- contriteFeeling guilt over misdeeds
penitent · guilt-ridden · sorry · apologetic · conscience-stricken
- funeralsfuneral, burial, cremation, casket, coffin
- griefgrief, bereavement, sorrow, grieving, lamentation
- crowd adjectivespacked, dense, massive, huge, enormous
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
- sombergloomy, bleak, dreary, dismal, melancholy
- mood symptomssadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anhedonia, low mood