plangent

plan·gent

adjective \-jənt\

Definition of PLANGENT

1

: having a loud reverberating sound <a plangent roar>

2

: having an expressive and especially plaintive quality <plangent lyrics>

— plan·gent·ly adverb

Examples of PLANGENT

1. <a plangent, haunting song about a long-ago love>
2. <plangent organ music filled the church>

Origin of PLANGENT

Latin plangent-, plangens, present participle of plangere to strike, lament — more at plaint

First Known Use: 1858

Related to PLANGENT

Synonyms

aching, agonized, anguished, bemoaning, bewailing, bitter, deploring, doleful, dolesome, dolorous, funeral, grieving, heartbroken, lamentable, lugubrious, plaintive, mournful, regretful, rueful, sorrowful, sorry, wailing, weeping, woeful

Antonyms

gentle, low, soft

Related Words

dirgelike, elegiac (also elegiacal), melancholy; dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, dispirited, downcast, downhearted, heartsick, heartsore, inconsolable, tearful; brokenhearted, careworn, crestfallen, downcast, downhearted, forlorn, gloomy, glum, low-spirited, miserable, sad, triste, unhappy, woebegone; bawling, crying, groaning, howling, keening, moaning, yammering; bleeding, suffering; black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, darkening, desolate, dismal, dreary, funereal, gloomy, glum, gray (also grey), joyless, low, miserable, moody, morbid, morose, pathetic, pessimistic, piteous, saturnine, somber (or sombre), sullen, wretched

Near Antonyms

delighted, exulting, glorying, happy, joyful, rejoicing, triumphant; bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery; laughing, smiling; blissful, blithe, blithesome, buoyant, jocund, jolly, joyous, lighthearted, merry, mirthful; encouraging, hopeful, optimistic; ecstatic, elated, euphoric, exhilarated, giddy, heady, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical)

Rhymes with PLANGENT

tangent