plaintiveness

noun

as in melancholy

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for plaintiveness
  1. melancholy
  2. mournfulness
  3. dejection
  4. sorrow
  5. gloom
Noun
  • Beneath all the sensuality and beauty, there’s also a lingering melancholy that feels very familiar to me.
    — Erik Pedersen, Oc Register, 16 June 2026
  • Don Hertzfeldt occasionally comes to mind for a similarly pervasive mood of questioning, philosophical melancholy.
    — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 12 June 2026
Definition of melancholy
Noun
  • Power Ballad should be breezy and fun, with that twist of mournfulness that Carney is always so adept at pulling off.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 29 May 2026
Definition of mournfulness
Noun
  • In the end, Gizelle’s team triumphs, prompting more dejection from Vicki.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 17 Aug. 2026
  • This has been one of Norway’s great months and reaching the end of the line was as much cause for pride as dejection across the capital.
    — Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 12 July 2026
Definition of dejection
Noun
  • Richards somehow had the fortitude to continue a grueling European tour in the middle of all this chaos and sorrow, but a stadium run through America at the end of the summer was simply too much to ask.
    — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Prescott’s story is both a rallying cry and a tragic narrative full of sorrow.
    — Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of sorrow
Noun
  • Bees avoid the gloom of the understory—with few flowers, there’s little to entice them—but wasps don’t mind it, and are attracted to the helleborines by the promise of an intoxicating nectar (itself made by a symbiosis with fungi).
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Amid the gloom, one local nonprofit group is working to celebrate iconic cartoons to support the animators of today — and remind people of the joy of animation.
    — Marah Eakin, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of gloom
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Plaintiveness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plaintiveness. Accessed 30 Aug. 2026.

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