Doleful

/ˈdoʊlfəl/ · adjective

Meaning

Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness..

Example Sentences

The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held.

A doleful expression that tugged at my heartstrings.

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, / As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames / No light; but rather darkness visible / Served only to discover sights of woe, / Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace / And rest can never dwell, hope never comes / That comes to all, but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed / With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.

O King this is very doleful. It is told that that traveller came at last to the utter End and there was a mighty gulf, and in the darkness at the bottom of the gulf one small god crept, no bigger than a hare, whose voice came crying in the cold: “I know not.” And beyond the gulf was nought, only the small god crying.

“We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine.

Synonyms for doleful

Antonyms for doleful

Related Words

Word Forms

• more doleful
• dolefuller
• dolefuler
• most doleful
• dolefullest
• dolefulest

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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