plangent

plan·gent

adj \-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)

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Rhymes with PLANGENT

tangent