Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dolorous The album’s pointed cover, showing a dolorous schoolboy gripping a phone while holding a basketball, hints at the weighty revelations contained therein. Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2025 Above ground, the images are reminiscent of Bela Tarr or the particularly dolorous stretches of early Tarkovsky movies, an impression accented by the strange siren-like blares, twangs and choral interludes of Tako Zhordania’s otherwordly score. Jessica Kiang, Variety, 8 July 2023 The nodding plume and the dolorous bell. James Parker, The Atlantic, 29 Sep. 2022 The next evening, a lanky youth in military fatigues mumbles something less dolorous from the same podium and Llewyn can only watch from the sidelines as the audience applauds with vigour. Hazlitt, 24 Aug. 2022 Things had changed just enough to incorporate this kind of hard, dolorous realism. Wesley Morris, New York Times, 5 Nov. 2020 His Grammy supremacy, to the exclusion of Sheeran, shows that the dolorous guitarist no longer holds intrinsic sway over the smiling showman for the awards' purposes. Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 28 Nov. 2017 His Grammy supremacy, to the exclusion of Sheeran, shows that the dolorous guitarist no longer holds intrinsic sway over the smiling showman for the awards' purposes. Andrew Unterberger, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Nov. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dolorous
Adjective
  • The atmosphere at Charlie Kirk's memorial in Glendale, Arizona, is anything but mournful.
    Amanda Castro Mandy Taheri Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Sep. 2025
  • So mournful the distant owl in Black Brooks.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • And every day, across from them, outside the clinic, about to enter or just leaving, there were women hugging each other and weeping.
    David Mamet, National Review, 11 Aug. 2022
  • The show manages to stay on the brink — always laughing, never quite weeping — for its entire length.
    Helen Shaw, Vulture, 8 Dec. 2021
Adjective
  • Since the tragic incident, Zemfira’s dad Ruslan Mukhtarov created a GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses.
    Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 7 Oct. 2025
  • At the end of the service, a funeral procession carried Howard's casket, now draped in an American flag, south along Hickory Road.
    Liam Rappleye, Freep.com, 4 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • The most painful part, the tragedy of our lives, was that Brenda was heartbroken.
    Ashley Hume, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2025
  • This isn't the first time the internet has been left heartbroken when a dog didn't want to play.
    Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Seventeen years is pretty old for a bourbon, but in this case the whiskey is not overtaken by bitter tannic oak notes.
    Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 5 Oct. 2025
  • But the most bitter had to be crooner Eddie Fisher, her fourth husband, who suffered the public humiliation of leaving his wife Debbie Reynolds for her (as well as their daughter Carrie), then getting dumped for Burton.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dolorous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dolorous. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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