Nearby Words
plaintive [pleyn-tiv] Example Sentences
Main Entry:
plaintive [pleyn-tiv]
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: pathetic, woebegone
Synonyms: beefing, bellyaching, cantankerous, crabby, cranky*, disconsolate, doleful, grief-stricken, grievous, grousing, grumpy*, heartrending, lamenting, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, out of sorts, pathetic, piteous, pitiful, rueful, sad, saddening, sorrowful, wailing, wistful, woeful
Notes: a plaintiff is the party who brings an action in a court of law, while plaintive means expressive of sorrow or melancholy
Antonyms: cheerful, happy
Main Entry: doleful
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: depressing
Synonyms: afflicted, cast down, cheerless, crestfallen, dejected, depressed, dirgeful, dismal, dispirited, distressing, dolent, dolorous, down, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, dreary, forlorn, funereal, gloomy, grieving, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, piteous, pitiful, plaintive, rueful, sad, somber, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheerful, elated, glad, gleeful, happy, joyful
Main Entry: dolorous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: miserable, anguished
Synonyms: afflicted, afflictive, calamitous, deplorable, dire, distressing, doleful, dolent, dolesome, dolorific, grievous, harrowing, heart-rending, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, ruthful, sad, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheery, happy, hopeful
Example Sentences
  • I've actually mistaken my Siamese's plaintive yowls for my own baby before.
  • That's too bad, because despite her plaintive plea, she ought to be judged.
  • Her voice, by turns plaintive and coaxing, is distorted to resemble a man's.
EXPAND
Main Entry: irritable
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: bad-tempered, crabby
Synonyms: annoyed, bearish, brooding, cantankerous, carping, choleric, complaining, contentious, crabbed, cross, crotchety, disputatious, dissatisfied, dyspeptic, easily offended, exasperated, fiery, fractious, fretful, fretting, gloomy, grouchy, grumbling, hasty, hot, huffy, hypercritical, ill-humored, irascible, moody, morose, out of humor, oversensitive, peevish, petulant, plaintive, prickly, querulous, quick-tempered, resentful, sensitive, snappy, snarling, surly, tense, testy, touchy
Antonyms: cheerful, happy, nice
Main Entry: lamentable
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: upsetting, miserable
Synonyms: afflictive, awful, bad, calamitous, deplorable, dire, dirty, distressing, doleful, dolorous, god-awful, grievous, grim, heartbreaking, hurting, lousy, low, lugubrious, meager, mean, melancholy, mournful, pitiful, plaintive, poor, regretful, rotten, rueful, sad, sorrowful, stinking, tragic, unfavorable, unfortunate, unsatisfactory, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheering, fortunate, good, lucky, satisfactory
Main Entry: pathetic
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: sad, affecting
Synonyms: commiserable, deplorable, distressing, feeble, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, miserable, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, puny, rueful, sorry*, tender, touching, useless, woeful, worthless, wretched
Antonyms: cheerful, happy, useful, worthwhile
Main Entry: piteous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: miserable, pathetic
Synonyms: beseeching, commiserable, deplorable, distressing, doleful, dolorous, entreating, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, imploring, lamentable, melancholy, mournful, moving, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, rueful, ruined, sad, sorrowful, supplicating, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheerful, happy
Main Entry: querulous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: grouchy, hard to please
Synonyms: bearish, bemoaning, cantankerous, captious, carping, censorious, complaining, critical, cross, crying, deploring, discontented, dissatisfied, edgy, fault-finding, fretful, grousing, grumbling, grumbly, huffy irascible, irritable, lamenting, out of sorts peevish, petulant, plaintive, scrappy, snappy, sour, testy, thin-skinned touchy, uptight, wailing, waspish, waspy, whimpering, whining, whiny
Antonyms: cheerful, easy-going, happy
Main Entry: sorrowful
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: very upset; grieving
Synonyms: affecting, afflicted, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, distressing, doleful, dolent, full of sorrow, grievous, heartbroken, heartrending, heavy-hearted, hurting, in mourning, in pain, in sorrow, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, miserable, mournful, painful, piteous, plaintive, rueful, ruthful, sad, sick at heart, singing the blues, sorry, tear-jerking, tearful, unhappy, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: delighted, happy, joyful
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