Synonyms of wailing

wailing 1 of 2

adjective

as in weeping

expressing or suggesting mourning

a wailing quality in her voice that makes her a natural for country music

Synonyms & Similar Words

• weeping
• mournful
• funeral
• heartbroken
• grieving
• bitter
• anguished
• aching
• crying
• plaintive
• melancholy
• sad
• agonized
• sorrowful
• tearful
• sorry
• doleful
• lamentable
• unhappy
• dolorous
• lugubrious
• regretful
• woeful
• plangent
• depressed
• bewailing
• somber
• rueful
• funereal
• bemoaning
• deploring
• dark
• morbid
• keening
• bleak
• dolesome
• moaning
• groaning
• inconsolable
• howling
• pathetic
• disconsolate
• bleeding
• elegiac
• darkening
• miserable
• dejected
• despondent
• downcast
• heartsick
• moody
• woebegone
• forlorn
• dispirited
• desolate
• crestfallen
• suffering
• bawling
• gloomy
• careworn
• black
• gray
• glum
• brokenhearted
• dirgelike
• piteous
• yammering
• sullen
• heartsore
• morose
• downhearted
• low
• wretched
• cheerless
• pessimistic
• dismal
• joyless
• low-spirited
• saturnine
• comfortless
• dreary
• triste

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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

wailing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of wail

1

as in screaming

to express dissatisfaction, pain, or resentment usually tiresomely

the state's residents are always wailing about their high taxes

Synonyms & Similar Words

• screaming
• complaining
• whining
• moaning
• muttering
• whimpering
• growling
• crying
• squealing
• grumbling
• squawking
• murmuring
• kicking
• worrying
• hollering
• keening
• bitching
• yammering
• yowling
• bleating
• grousing
• griping
• nagging
• caterwauling
• inveighing
• whinging
• carping
• repining
• yawping
• beefing
• bellyaching
• kvetching
• grizzling
• fussing
• grouching
• croaking
• sobbing
• protesting
• grumping
• crabbing
• maundering
• kicking up a fuss
• blubbering
• quarreling (with)
• objecting (to)
• quibbling
• lamenting
• bewailing
• fretting
• stewing
• bemoaning
• deploring
• caviling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• rejoicing
• delighting
• enduring
• taking
• accepting
• crowing
• bearing
• tolerating
• cheering
• applauding
• commending
• countenancing

2

as in howling

to make a long loud mournful sound

the women stood beside the coffins, wailing for their fallen sons and daughters

Synonyms & Similar Words

• howling
• screaming
• shrieking
• yelling
• keening
• yowling
• ululating
• screeching
• baying
• squealing
• yelping
• squalling
• shrilling
• bawling
• caterwauling
• yawping

3

as in moaning

to utter a moan

the patient lay in her bed, occasionally softly wailing in pain

Synonyms & Similar Words

• moaning
• groaning
• sobbing
• crying
• weeping
• whimpering
• whining
• shrieking
• blubbering
• sniffing
• sniveling
• bewailing
• howling
• grieving
• keening
• lamenting
• yelping
• mourning
• squalling
• sorrowing
• bemoaning
• bawling
• deploring
• bleeding
• hurting
• suffering
• yammering
• yowling
• ruing
• agonizing
• anguishing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• laughing
• giggling
• chuckling
• cackling
• snickering
• twittering
• chortling
• cracking up
• guffawing
• tittering

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of wailing

Adjective

Sitting opposite an old people’s home in a residential corner of Paris’ 14th arrondissement, La Santé’s unassuming presence is only given away by the occasional wailing siren as prisoners are transported to and from the site. — Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025

Verb

Luann is unfazed and unmoving, cigar in hand, fedora on her head, posing for the camera despite the woman wailing from beneath her ass. — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 28 Sep. 2026

The bold clarity of the performances was energizing, but the wailing sometimes sounded like parody grief. — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026

Except kids being kids, my son would keep needling and my daughter would keep wailing. — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026

Osama, donning his bulletproof blue press jacket and armed with his camera, is accosted by a woman wailing that 200 of her neighbors are gone. — Ritesh Mehta, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2026

When the coroner’s deputy lifted Malachi’s body to take it away that night in October 2023, there was no wailing or sobbing from his parents. — Audrey Dutton, ProPublica, 25 Aug. 2026

This Lusitania didn’t sink as a formal band played, but the ticking of each man’s pocket watch synchronized to form a furious percussion section, and all those wailing women’s voices layered into girl-group harmonies. — Claire Carusillo, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026

Instead of wailing in agony after sampling the vengefully spiked bird, Prince fell in love with it and founded the BBQ Chicken Shack in 1945. — Ellen Fort, Bon Appetit Magazine, 31 July 2026

Added to the mix is Ian Stewart, the Stones’ longtime road manager, playing piano in boogie-woogie style, plus a wailing sax solo by Bobby Keys. — René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 July 2026