mournful

[US]/ˈmɔːnfl/
[UK]/ˈmɔːrnfl/
Frequency: Very High

Translation

adj. filled with or expressing sorrow or sadness; causing or evoking grief or lamentation.

Example Sentences

the mournful sound of a train whistle.

her large, mournful eyes.

gave her a mournful look.

he emitted a short mournful squall.

the mournful sound did nothing to squash her high spirits.

"'Mr Eames,' he said, in a mournful voice, 'you have just killed that child!'"

Real-world Examples

" You have dropped into your old mournful key."

Source: Returning Home

The sea gushed forward and backward; it was a mournful sound.

Source: 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Since that mournful period, a great change had come over me.

Source: American Original Language Arts Volume 4

" Ah me" ! once voice said, and another said, " Oh, mournful day" .

Source: Peter Pan

There's something mournful in his eyes when he looks back at Ove.

Source: A man named Ove decides to die.

Their strange faces, which seemed mournful and merry all at once, looked into his.

Source: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Hence the expression, serious even to mournful, that shadowed his film-star-handsome face on the course.

Source: The Economist - Comprehensive

There was a long pause, broken only by the mournful creak of the floorboards below Harry's feet.

Source: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Virginia Woolf's London in “Mrs Dalloway” (1925) is mournful, offering little succour after the first world war.

Source: The Economist - Arts

A listener hears the mournful feeling cowboys had for the prairie in this song called, The Dying Cowboy.

Source: VOA Special September 2019 Collection

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