1
: expressing sorrow : sorrowful
2
: full of sorrow : sad
3
: causing sorrow or melancholy : gloomy
mournfulness
noun
Examples of mournful in a Sentence
she had such a mournful expression that someone teasingly asked if her dog had died
the mournful survivors of the disaster were faced with the grim task of burying the dead
Recent Examples on the Web
Once abundant on the island, this ground-foraging dove – with an earthy red-brown plumage and a quiet, mournful call – disappeared from the wild by 1972.
—
Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 5 July 2025
Several of her patients left mournful messages on the Yelp page of her Arcadia practice.
—Clara Harter
follow, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
But today that moral arc is as twisted as a gnarled, rotten root, and God Bless America has been
replaced by the mournful dirge of Taps.
—Marci Alborghetti, Hartford Courant, 3 July 2025
Dicey intonation in the final chorus and Mandane’s second-act aria aside, the group’s unity and expression was impressive, from exactly seesawing strings to Brandon Acker’s bleak, mournful lute under Artaserse’s first-act lament.
—Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mournful
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Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 5 July 2025
Several of her patients left mournful messages on the Yelp page of her Arcadia practice.
—Clara Harter
follow, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
But today that moral arc is as twisted as a gnarled, rotten root, and God Bless America has been
replaced by the mournful dirge of Taps.
—Marci Alborghetti, Hartford Courant, 3 July 2025
Dicey intonation in the final chorus and Mandane’s second-act aria aside, the group’s unity and expression was impressive, from exactly seesawing strings to Brandon Acker’s bleak, mournful lute under Artaserse’s first-act lament.
—Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mournful
Cite this Entry
“Mournful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mournful. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
mournful
adjective
mourn·ful
ˈmō(ə)rn-fəl 
ˈmȯ(ə)rn-
1
: expressing or full of sorrow : sorrowful
a mournful face
2
: causing sorrow
a mournful story
mournfulness
noun
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