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adjective

plaintive

sounding sad and mournful

In a sentence

Six example sentences with plaintive, each labelled with its topic.

  • The cello opens with a plaintive line over almost nothing, and the whole hall goes quiet immediately.

    Music

  • The plaintive call of the last curlew carried across the marsh, and the survey team logged it at dusk.

    Environment

  • The portrait is plaintive without being sentimental, mostly because of the way those thin hands rest in her lap.

    Art

  • The novel ends with a plaintive letter from the daughter, asking a father who will never read it why he left.

    Literature

  • A plaintive harmonica plays over the final scene as the drifter walks away from the only town that ever welcomed him.

    Movies

  • A plaintive train whistle carried across the valley each night, and by the third day I had learned the timetable by heart.

    Travel

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Found in these word lists

Found in 3 published word listsRecognized

Each source is a published word list that contains plaintive. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

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