plaintive

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Tom Petty vowing not to back down sounds plaintive and aspirational.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025

This pageant of puppetry includes a flutter of butterflies, a goat with a plaintive bleat, a menagerie of wild animals and, at one point, a school of glowing fish.

From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2025

The resulting lush and exotic soundscape, featuring plaintive pan flute and sprinkled with birdsong, turned out to be perfect for the game’s spooktastic forest levels.

From New York Times • Nov. 19, 2024

As Rangers people run around with their hair on fire, those words appear more plaintive than ever.

From BBC • Nov. 1, 2024

As coveted as his shells were, Pocock had begun to find himself struggling to stay in business, reduced to writing plaintive letters to coaches around the country, pleading for orders.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown