Usually means: Expressing sadness or melancholy clearly.
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We found 27 dictionaries that define the word plaintive:

General (25 matching dictionaries)
  1. plaintive: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
  2. plaintive: Merriam-Webster
  3. plaintive: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  4. plaintive: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  5. plaintive: Collins English Dictionary
  6. plaintive: Vocabulary.com
  7. Plaintive, plaintive: Wordnik
  8. plaintive: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  9. plaintive: Wiktionary
  10. plaintive: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  11. plaintive: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  12. plaintive: Infoplease Dictionary
  13. Plaintive, plaintive: Dictionary.com
  14. plaintive: Online Etymology Dictionary
  15. plaintive: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  16. Plaintive: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  17. plaintive: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  18. plaintive: Rhymezone
  19. plaintive: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  20. plaintive: Webster's 1828 Dictionary
  21. plaintive: FreeDictionary.org
  22. plaintive: Mnemonic Dictionary
  23. plaintive: TheFreeDictionary.com

Business (1 matching dictionary)
  1. plaintive: Legal dictionary

Miscellaneous (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Sound-Alike Words (No longer online)

(Note: See plaintively as well.)

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Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
▸ adjective:  Sounding sorrowful, mournful or melancholic.

Similar:
mournful, sorrowful, wailful, moanful, elegiac, doleful, sadful, dolorous, melancholy, weepful, more...

Opposite:
cheerful, content, delighted, ecstatic, elated, glad, happy, joyful, jubilant, lively

Types:
wistful, melancholy, mournful, pensive, more...

Phrases:
plaintive cry, plaintive piece, plaintive poem, plaintive whine, more...

Adjectives:
little, such, aimless, dead, last, sad

Colors:
    gray,     charcoal,     pewter,     smoke,     mist, more...


▸ Word origin

▸ Words similar to plaintive

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▸ Wikipedia articles (New!)

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▸ Rhymes of plaintive

▸ Invented words related to plaintive

Similar:
mournful, sorrowful, wailful, moanful, elegiac, doleful, sadful, dolorous, melancholy, weepful, more...

Opposite:
cheerful, content, delighted, ecstatic, elated, glad, happy, joyful, jubilant, lively

Types:
wistful, melancholy, mournful, pensive, more...

Phrases:
plaintive cry, plaintive piece, plaintive poem, plaintive whine, more...

Adjectives:
little, such, aimless, dead, last, sad

Colors:
    gray,     charcoal,     pewter,     smoke,     mist, more...



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