plaintiveness
Sad, longing tone
Plaintiveness is the quality of sounding sad or mournful, especially in a way that seems to express suffering or longing.
The word often describes sounds—voices, music, animal cries—that evoke sympathy or melancholy: the plaintiveness of a distant train whistle, There was a plaintiveness in her voice that made him turn back.
State of emotional pain
- sorrowDeep emotional distress
- gloomPervasive dimness or dejection
- pensivenessReflective, slightly sad mood
- sombernessGrave, serious quality
dejection · forlornness · bleakness · glumness · brooding · heavyhearted · doleful · lugubrious
Intense prolonged craving
- piningAching with prolonged desire
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- achePersistent dull discomfort
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
hankering · craving · desire · thirst · dreaminess · homesickness · hiraeth · bittersweet
Prolonged mournful crying
- keeningVocal mourning for dead
- weepingShedding tears audibly
- mourningPeriod following loss
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
elegy · dirge · requiem · crying · sobbing · bewailing · tearful · elegiac
Pity-evoking quality
- poignancyPiercing emotional quality
- emotivenessCapacity for emotional expression
- expressivenessAbility to convey emotion
- evocativeTending to summon memories
touching · affecting · moving · stirring · heartfelt · soulful · tender · heartrending
sadness
State of emotional pain
- sorrowDeep emotional distress
- gloomPervasive dimness or dejection
- pensivenessReflective, slightly sad mood
somberness · dejection · forlornness · bleakness · glumness · brooding · heavyhearted · doleful · lugubrious · morose
yearning
Intense prolonged craving
- piningAching with prolonged desire
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- achePersistent dull discomfort
nostalgia · hankering · craving · desire · thirst · dreaminess · homesickness · hiraeth · bittersweet · languishing
wailing
Prolonged mournful crying
grief · elegy · dirge · requiem · crying · sobbing · bewailing · tearful · elegiac · threnody
pathos
Pity-evoking quality
- poignancyPiercing emotional quality
- emotivenessCapacity for emotional expression
- expressivenessAbility to convey emotion
evocative · touching · affecting · moving · stirring · heartfelt · soulful · tender · heartrending · bittersweet
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
plaintivenesscheerfulness
State of bright spirits
joy · glee · happiness · exuberance · jubilation
plaintivenesscontentment
Peaceful satisfaction with circumstances
satisfaction · serenity · peacefulness · tranquility · exultation
complain, complaint, complaining, plaintive, complains, complained, lamentation, lamenting, mournfulness