plaintive
Full of sorrow
Plaintive describes sounds or expressions that convey sorrow or melancholy—a mournful quality that evokes sympathy: a plaintive cry, the plaintive wail of a saxophone.
The word often applies to music, voices, or calls that seem to be pleading or lamenting: The dog's plaintive whimper came from behind the door.
Filled with grief
- grievingFeeling sorrow after loss
- lamentingExpressing passionate grief
- weepingShedding tears audibly
- anguishedSeverely emotionally distressed
doleful · woeful · elegiac · dirge · elegy · requiem · threnody · keening
Showing or feeling grief
- wailingProlonged mournful crying
- keeningVocal mourning for dead
- quaveringShaking in tone
- tremulousShaky from fear
wavering · high-pitched · haunting · piercing · lingering · fading · echoing · melodic
Urgently requesting with emotion
- beseechingUrgently pleading for something
- supplicatingAsking humbly, desperately
- entreatingUrgently asking for favor
- beggingEarnest desperate requesting
appealing · piteous · pitiful · pathetic · helpless · desperate · urgent · importunate
Intense, persistent desire
- piningAching with prolonged desire
- wistfulSadly longing for something
- achingExperiencing dull pain
- sighingAudible breath of emotion
nostalgic · bittersweet · homesick · reminiscent · regretful · wishful · desirous · hopeful
Emotionally low
- wistfulSadly longing for something
- pensiveQuietly, sadly thoughtful
- somberGravely serious in mood
- gloomyDark and dispiriting
despondent · dejected · morose · blue · downcast · crestfallen · heavy-hearted · subdued
Evoking gentle emotion
- movingEmotionally affecting
- affectingEmotionally moving
- evocativeTending to summon memories
- stirringArousing strong emotion
emotional · expressive · resonant · haunting · piercing · penetrating · tender · bittersweet
sorrowful
Filled with grief
anguished · doleful · woeful · elegiac · dirge · elegy · requiem · threnody · keening · funereal
mournful
Showing or feeling grief
tremulous · wavering · high-pitched · haunting · piercing · lingering · fading · echoing · melodic · sob
imploring
Urgently requesting with emotion
- beseechingUrgently pleading for something
- supplicatingAsking humbly, desperately
- entreatingUrgently asking for favor
begging · appealing · piteous · pitiful · pathetic · helpless · desperate · urgent · importunate · crying
longing
Intense, persistent desire
sighing · nostalgic · bittersweet · homesick · reminiscent · regretful · wishful · desirous · hopeful · unrequited
sad
Emotionally low
gloomy · despondent · dejected · morose · blue · downcast · crestfallen · heavy-hearted · subdued · muted
touching
Evoking gentle emotion
stirring · emotional · expressive · resonant · haunting · piercing · penetrating · tender · bittersweet · heartfelt
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
- mopingbrooding, sulking, wallowing, pouting, sighing
- dramatic tonesintense, tense, suspenseful, ominous, foreboding
- sombergloomy, bleak, dreary, dismal, melancholy
- movingmoving, moving truck, move out, move in, movers
- tragic literatureIliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Medea, Oedipus
plaintivelighthearted
Cheerful and without worry
blithe · buoyant · carefree · blithesome · jocund