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“The people are drifting from door to door / Can’t find no heaven I don’t care where they go.” So sang Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James on a Depression-era recording of his song “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.” James’s somber lyrics as well as his otherworldly falsetto and distinctive minor-key fingerpicking may be aptly described by the adjective plaintive—deeply expressive, like much of the blues. Plaintive comes from the Middle English word plaintif, meaning “grieving,” a borrowing from an identical Anglo-French word that itself was formed from the Anglo-French noun plaint, a word meaning “lamentation.” (Plaint was also adopted directly into English to refer to expressions of sorrow, mourning, or regret.) Plaintif is the source too of the familiar legal term plaintiff, which refers to someone who presents a legal action or complaint to a court. But while only some people become plaintiffs, all are capable of plaintiveness, whether in song or just a world-weary sigh.
Examples of plaintive in a Sentence
Robin Wright, New Yorker, 23 June 2025
The movie whose theme song was a minimalist, plaintive DUH-DUN ended up striking a major chord with its cinematic production design.
—Michael Martin, Architectural Digest, 23 June 2025
Crickets and frogs and the plaintive call of the poorwill can also add intrigue to the darkness.
—Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 June 2025
Hayakawa is a plaintive storyteller who refuses to indulge in emotional cheats of any kind, and would rather a scene be impenetrably oblique than overexplain its purpose.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for plaintive
Cite this Entry
“Plaintive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plaintive. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
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