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

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

My mom still talks about the 16-year-old girl in the hospital bed next to me wailing after a similar surgery. — Rebekah Taussig, Time, 7 July 2026

Lind had to do a lot of wailing upon discovering Rob-Will’s lifeless body, but the waterworks weren’t limited to just her coverage. — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 7 July 2026

My little guy went from kicking the light-up piano with his tiny tootsies to sitting up and wailing away. — Melissa Willets, Parents, 1 July 2026

Those themes are compelling on paper, but they’re expressed through a confusing mix of abstraction and hyper-local specificity, hidden beneath biker rock riffs, and obscured through Allbrook’s wiry, wailing vocal delivery. — Cassidy Sollazzo, Pitchfork, 19 June 2026

Families broken Noemi, a Guatemalan mother and asylum seeker, stood in the parking lot at an ICE office north of Los Angeles, her three children wailing and clinging to her, glass from the family's car scattered at their feet. — Claudia Boyd-Barrett, CBS News, 18 June 2026