Mournful

Definition: Mournful

Mournful

Adjective

1. Expressing sorrow.

2. Filled with or evoking sadness; "the child's doleful expression"; "stared with mournful eyes"; "mournful news".

Date "mournful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Mournful

Synonyms: doleful (adj), plaintive (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Dejection	Adjective: cheerless, joyless, spiritless; uncheerful, uncheery; unlively; unhappy; melancholy, dismal, somber, dark, gloomy, triste, clouded, murky, lowering, frowning, lugubrious, funereal, mournful, lamentable, dreadful.
Lamentation	Adjective: lamenting; Verb: in mourning, in sackcloth and ashes; sorrowing, sorrowful; (unhappy); mournful, tearful; lachrymose; plaintive, plaintful; querulous, querimonious; in the melting mood; threnetic.
Pain	Distressing; afflicting, afflictive; joyless, cheerless, comfortless; dismal, disheartening; depressing, depressive; dreary, melancholy, grievous, piteous; woeful, rueful, mournful, deplorable, pitiable, lamentable; sad, affecting, touching, pathetic.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Mournful

English words defined with "mournful": Banshie ♦ Caretuned, Chirm ♦ Dernful, doleful ♦ elegist, elegy ♦ jeremiad ♦ Lacrimoso, lament, lamentable, lugubrious ♦ Minor mode, mournfully, mourning dove ♦ Planxty ♦ Sad bread, Sigh-born, somber, sombre, Sustaltic ♦ Threnetical ♦ Zenaidura macroura. (references)

Specialty definitions using "mournful": Crocodile's Tears ♦ Doves ♦ Inn ♦ Jemmy Dawson. (references)

Etymologies containing "mournful": Dernful ♦ Sigh-born. (references)

Domain	Usage
Lyrics	On this strange and mournful day (Mother and Child Reunion; performing artist: Paul Simon; writing credit: Paul Simon)
Movie/TV Titles	Tell Me Not in Mournful Numbers (1964)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Edgar a Poe Mournful and Neverending Remem (reference) Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance (reference) Long Mournful Winter Has Turned Into Spring, The (reference) Louisiana's Native Americans: A Mournful Memory, Written in Blood (reference) Mournful Numbers (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Mournful Cries (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	At dawn the chink-running cruiser dumped her cargo on a mournful Florida lagoon--. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Author	Quotation
Edgar Allan Poe	Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance.
Samuel Johnson	This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles	Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced anxiously towards the door.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	There was in the depths of his eye an indescribably mournful serenity.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Mournful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Mournful" is used about 132 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	132	27,743

Expression using "mournful": mournful widow. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "mournful": mournful-looking.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "mournful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i zymtë (black, cheerless, crepuscular, dark, depressed, dismal, dour, drab, dreary, eerie, funeral, funereal, gloomy, glum, grim, heavy, leaden, macabre, mirk, mirthless, morose, muddy, murk, sad, sepulchral, somber, sombre, spleenful, stark, sulky, sullen, surly, tenebrous, winterly, wintry), i trishtuar (blue, cheerless, comfortless, dark, disappointed, disappointing, doleful, down, dreary, elegiac, funereal, gloomy, grievous, joyless, lugubrious, melancholy, minor, mirthless, miserable, mopish, pensive, rueful, sad, tristful, unhappy, vapoury, wailful, wan, wistful, woebegone, woeful, woesome), i pikëlluar (afflicted, distressed, distressful, dolorous, gaunt, glum, heartsick, rueful, sad, sorrowful, sorry, woeful, woesome). (various references)

Arabic		‏كئيب (bleak, blue, cheerless, damp, dark, dejected, depressed, depressing, depressive, desolate, disconsolate, dismal, dispirited, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorous, down, downcast, down-hearted, drear, dreary, droopy, dyspeptic, funeral, funereal, gloomy, glum, gray, grey, grief-stricken, grieved, grievous, heavy-hearted, ill, joyless, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited, melancholic, melancholy, moody, out of spirits, rueful, sad, saddening, somber, sombre, spiritless, sullen, tearful, weary), ‏محزن (depressing, dismal, distressing, doleful, dolorous, gloomy, grievous, pathetic, rueful, sad, saddening, sorrowful, tragic, woeful), ‏متفجع, ‏حزين (afflicted, cheerless, dejected, depressed, doleful, dolorous, downcast, drear, dreary, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholic, miserable, pathetic, plaintive, rueful, sad, sore, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy, wailful, weary, wistful, woeful), ‏حدادي (lugubrious). (various references)

Bulgarian		скръбен (doleful, sad, woeful), тъжен (bleak, cheerless, desolate, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, dull, dusky, elegiac, gloomy, heavy, joyless, lonesome, lugubrious, melancholy, minor, mirthless, pensive, plaintive, sad, sick, sickly, sorrowful, tristful, wan, wistful, woebegone, woeful), траурен (funereal, lugubrious, mourning, sable), печален (dark, disconsolate, distressful, distressing, dolorous, drear, grave, grievous, heavyhearted, lamentable, lugubrious, rueful, sad, somber, sombre, sorrowful, tearful, tristful, woeful). (various references)

Chinese		蕭 , 怲 (sad), �' (intense cold), 悲慟 , 悲切 , 凄 (intense cold). (various references)

Czech		truchlivý (woeful, woesome). (various references)

Dutch		rouw-. (various references)

Esperanto		morna (desolate, dismal, dreary, gaunt, gloomy), funebra. (various references)

Faeroese		tyngjandi (desolate, dismal, dreary, gaunt, gloomy), dapur (desolate, dismal, dreary, gaunt, gloomy, sad). (various references)

Farsi		سوگوار (Rueful), عزادار (Plaintful, Weepy). (various references)

French		morne (Moody), mélancolique, triste (mopish), sombre (morose), funèbre, affligé. (various references)

German		traurig (baleful, balefully, blue, cheerless, dismal, doleful, funereal, gaunt, lugubrious, lugubriously, miserable, mournfully, notorious, pathetic, plaintively, sad, sadly, sorrowful, sorrowfully, sorry, unhappy, upsetting). (various references)

Greek		πένθιμοσ (elegiac, funeral, funereal, lugubrious, mourning, sable), λυπηρόσ (baleful, doleful, grievous, regrettable, sad, sorrowful, sorry), θρηνώδησ (plaintive, wailful). (various references)

Hebrew		מתאבל, ע�'ום (bleak, cheerless, disconsolate, dismal, doleful, dusky, funereal, gloomy, morose, rueful, sorrowful, sullen), אבל (but, desolate, funereal, however, indeed, lamenter, mourner, only), א� ון (gloomy, sad), �"ווי (doleful, sad, sorrowful). (various references)

Hungarian		gyászos (calamitous, doleful, elegiac, funereal, gray, grey, grim, lugubrious, rueful, tragic), szomorú (blue, cheerless, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, down in the mouth, drear, dreary, face as long as a fiddle, grievous, heart broken, joyless, long-faced, melancholy, mirthless, mopish, pained, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, sad, sorrowful, to be in the dumps, tristful), siralmas (abject, deplorable, lamentable, lugubrious, piteous, pitiable, sorry, woeful). (various references)

Italian		luttuoso (distressful, distressing, tragic), lugubre (black, dismal, gloomy, lugubrious, sad, sadly), lamentoso (miserable, moanful, plaintive, querulous), lamentevole (lamentable, pitiful), funebre (funeral, funerary, funereal), afflitto (bleak, destressed, dismal, dreary, gaunt, miserable, pained, sad, somber, sorrowful, sorrowing, sorry, sullen, unhappy). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		悲歌 (dirge, elegy, mournful melody), �"�調 (minor key, mournful melody, plaintive). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ひか (dirge, elegy, mournful melody, parity, subcutaneous), あいちょう (minor key, mournful melody, pet bird, plaintive, sympathetic condolences). (various references)

Manx		truanagh (miserable, sorrowful person), trimshagh (affecting; lamentation; sad person, baleful, dismal, grievous, heavy, heavy sorrowful, lugubrious, miserable, plaintive, sad, saddened, sorrowful, sorrowful person), treihnagh, seiyjagh (agitating, agitative, agitatorial, calamitous, sad, sore, woeful), keaynoil (lamentable), jeiragh (lachrymal, tearful), douyr (afflicting, uncomfortable, unhappy), branagh (black, black as outlook). (various references)

Pig Latin		ournfulmay

Portuguese		fúnebre (funeral, funereal, lugubrious, macabre, mortuary). (various references)

Romanian		trist (bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, darkish, depressing, dispirited, doleful, dolefully, dolorous, downcast, drab, dreary, dull, dumpish, elegiac, glum, joyless, lamenting, maudlin, melancholy, miserable, mournfully, pensive, pensively, rueful, sad, sadly, sorrowful, splenetic, sullen, tough, unfortunate, unhappy, woebegone, woeful), jelitor, jalnic (beggarly, deplorable, distressing, doleful, forlorn, heart rending, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, mangy, mean, miserable, miserably, pathetic, pathetically, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, rueful, ruefully, sad, sorrowful, sorry, squalid, woeful, wretched), îndoliat. (various references)

Russian		скорбный (doleful, sorrowful, woeful), траурный (funereal, sable, sorrowful), печальный (comfortless, deplorable, disappointing, disconsolate, dolorous, heavyhearted, heavy-hearted, lachrymose, lamentable, languishing, lugubrious, miserable, pensive, sad, sorrowful, sorry, tearful, tristful, wailful). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		žalostan (deplorable, lamentable, lugubrious, plaintive, regretful, rueful, sad, sorrowful, tearful, tristful, wailful, weepy). (various references)

Spanish		melancólico (broody, gloomy, glum, melancholic, melancholy, mirthless, mope), triste (bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, depressing, dismal, doleful, dolorous, drear, dreary, gaunt, gloomy, glum, heavy, hipped, joyless, joylessly, mirthless, miserable, rueful, sad, somber, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy), lastimero (plaintive), lúgubre (bleak, dark, dismal, dreary, forbidding, gash, gaunt, ghastly, grisly, horrible, lugubrious, nasty), afligido (afflicted, aggrieved, bereaved, bleak, desolate, dismal, distressed, dreary, gaunt, miserable, pained, sad, somber, sorrowful, sorry, stricken, sullen, troubled). (various references)

Swedish		sorgsen (dismal, doleful, gaunt, miserable, plaintive, sad, sorrowful), sorglig (dismal, doleful, dolorous, funereal, grievous, heartbreaking, heart-breaking, lachrymose, lamentable, lugubrious, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, sad, sorrowful, sorry, woeful, woesome), jämmerlig (lamentable). (various references)

Turkish		yaslı (plaintive), kederli (broken hearted, chapfallen, dejected, depressed, dismal, doleful, dolorous, drear, dreary, heartsick, heartsore, heavy-hearted, low-spirited, pained, rueful, sick at heart, sorrowful, unhappy, woeful), hazin (dolorous, lugubrious, pathetic, sad, sorrowful). (various references)

Turkmen		zaryn (plaintive, sad), nalyюly (plaintive). (various references)

Ukrainian		сумний (afflictive, baleful, cheerless, comfortless, damp, dark, deplorable, despondent, dismal, doleful, drear, dreary, dumpish, dumpy, elegiac, elegiacal, grievous, heavy-hearted, joyless, lamentable, lugubrious, maddening, melancholy, overcast, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, unhappy, wailful, wan), похмурий (adust, bleak, cheerless, dark, darksome, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dull, dusky, frowning, gash, gaunt, ghastly, gloomy, glum, grave, gruff, hard-faced, inhospitable, lowering, macabre, mopish, murk, nightly, obscure, overcast, sable, saturnine, sepulchral, shadowy, stygian, sullen, surly, tenebrous). (various references)

Vietnamese		thê lương (drear, dreary, gaunt, stygian), tang tóc (mourning), bu�"n rầu (black, chap-fallen, darkly, moody, morose, rueful, sad, sadly, sorrowful, sullen, woebegone, woeful, woefully, woesome), ảm đạm (black, drear, dreary, dull, howling, stygian). (various references)

Welsh		pruddaidd (gloomy, sad), galarus (baleful, lamentable, sad), cwynfanus (plaintive), alaethus (baleful, lamentable, sorrowful). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	lacrimosus, lamentabilis, luctisonus, lugubre, lugubri, lugubris, miserabilis, tristis. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "mournful": mournfuller, mournfullest, mournfully, mournfulness, mournfulnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Mournful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: mornful, mournfull. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "mournful" (pronounced mô"rnful)
6	-ô" r n f u l	scornful.
4	-n f u l	disdainful, gainful, painful, panful, sinful, tuneful.
3	-f u l	apocryphal, artful, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, boastful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, deceitful, delightful, disgraceful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doleful, doubtful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, eventful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fateful, fearful, fistful, fitful, flavorful, forceful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, gleeful, graceful, grateful, harmful, hateful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, hurtful, insightful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, lustful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mistrustful, muffle, needful, neglectful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, regretful, remorseful, resentful, reshuffle, resourceful, respectful, restful, riffle, rifle, rightful, rueful, ruffle, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, skillful, sorrowful, soulful, spiteful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tactful, tasteful, tearful, thankful, thoughtful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, uneventful, unfaithful, ungrateful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, wasteful, watchful, willful, wishful, wistful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful, zestful.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "f-l-m-n-o-r-u-u"
	-2 letters: unfurl.
	-3 letters: flour, fluor, forum, mourn.
	-4 letters: form, foul, four, from, furl, lorn, lour, morn, muon, norm, nurl, rolf.
	-5 letters: flu, fon, for, fou, fro, fun, fur, lum, mol, mon, mor, mun, nom, nor, our, rom, rum, run, ulu, urn.
	Words containing the letters "f-l-m-n-o-r-u-u"
	+2 letters: mournfully.
	+3 letters: mournfuller.
	+4 letters: luminiferous, mournfullest, mournfulness, unformulated, unremorseful.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.