Synonyms of wistful

wistful

adjective

as in nostalgic

showing or evoking a sad longing for an often idealized past

She felt wistful looking through her college yearbook, remembering old friends she had not seen in decades.

Related Words

• nostalgic
• dreamy
• sloppy
• moony
• misty-eyed
• sentimental
• wet
• moonstruck
• melodramatic
• sticky
• starry-eyed
• mawkish
• soapy
• maudlin
• schmaltzy
• cloying
• saccharine
• sudsy
• sappy
• drippy
• gooey
• sugary
• soppy
• mushy
• corny
• soap-operatic
• chocolate-box
• cutesy
• sugarcoated
• slushy
• lovey-dovey
• soupy
• spoony
• twee
• fruity
• novelettish

Dissimilar Words

• cynical
• hardheaded
• unsentimental
• hard-edged
• hard-boiled
• antisentimental

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of wistful

The Giants coach sounded wistful when talking about Kaepernick and the lost chance to team up with the quarterback who had nearly denied him a Super Bowl ring. — Ian O'Connor, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026

In late summer, Gap launched a new suite of perfumes modelled off the brand’s beloved fragrances of the nineteen-nineties—Grass, Heaven, Dream, and Om—in no small part to appeal to wistful elder millennials who miss spritzing themselves at the mall. — Rhoda Feng, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2026

In drone shots scored to generic indie-pop, Wendy (Dakota Fanning) drives into town, looking vaguely wistful under opening credits — so far, so romcom. — Vadim Rizov, Variety, 2 Sep. 2026

Anton, whose gaze at the couple can only be described as wistful. — Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026

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