How to Use plaintive in a Sentence

plaintive

adjective

• We could hear the plaintive cry of a wounded animal in the woods.
• Of the two, Taylor has the warmer and more reedy voice, Browne the more plaintive.
  — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Oct. 2021
• That’s because the sound that alerts them to an attack isn’t the plaintive voice of the victim.
  — Elin Kelsey, Smithsonian, 18 Aug. 2017
• That’s because the sound that alerts them to an attack isn’t the plaintive voice of the victim.
  — Elin Kelsey, Smithsonian, 18 Aug. 2017
• His voice lived in contrast to his body, small and plaintive.
  — Lena Dunham, Vogue, 18 Mar. 2019
• Common loons live on Maine’s lakes and ponds and are known for their plaintive call.
  — USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2020
• A day after news of the suit broke, Gaines tweeted a plaintive Bible verse.
  — Kaitlin Menza, Country Living, 28 Apr. 2017
• A day after news of the suit broke, Gaines tweeted a plaintive Bible verse.
  — Kaitlin Menza, Country Living, 28 Apr. 2017
• Jeff Flake of Arizona penned a plaintive tweet about the dismissal.
  — Jeff Stein, Newsweek, 10 May 2017
• His plaintive honesty strikes a chord in the Ukrainian people and . . .
  — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2022
• Its tone is plaintive, pleading: please tell your friends.
  — Matthew Shaer, New Republic, 5 Oct. 2017
• Anne and her husband are in Cannes; and the movie suggests, through Lane’s plaintive little glances, that all is not well.
  — Mick Lasalle, star-telegram.com, 25 May 2017
• Carrabba's expressive voice and plaintive lyrics are both the constant and the key.
  — Chuck Yarborough, cleveland.com, 26 Mar. 2018
• Cardinals and robins chirp their plaintive love calls from trees on the inland side.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 28 Apr. 2021
• Though it is not sung out loud, the lyrics appear on the screen as the plaintive melody is played, and Wulf’s own voice (recorded in the late 1960s) introduces it.
  — Andrew Lapin, Sun Sentinel, 3 Jan. 2024
• Many turned to social media with plaintive cries for help.
  — Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2017
• Nuthatches sound like a squeak toy, for instance, and chickadees have a plaintive call.
  — Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Indianapolis Star, 17 Dec. 2017
• The song’s three-note, plaintive, drone-like intro beckons me inside the walls of the piece and then drops me off at a heart-to-heart level with the message in the song.
  — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 25 May 2021
• The plaintive scream, Mouw would say, seemed to echo throughout the entire prison, bouncing off the walls and filling every bit of space.
  — Howard Blum, The Hive, 1 Dec. 2017
• At times, the notes take on a curiously plaintive tone.
  — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2021
• This is a plaintive group date, because Jason, Wills, and Leo are clearly such good friends.
  — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 10 July 2018
• With his plaintive gaze and sonorous voice, the actor brings a wonderful blend of humor and empathy to the role.
  — Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2022
• In a video made 18 months later, the man has a full beard and is singing a plaintive ballad in praise of Islamic State martyrs.
  — Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, 14 May 2017
• Inslee said, his voice rising in one of the debate’s most plaintive moments.
  — Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2019
• As Wyda made her plaintive phone calls, the first grim foreboding of what was ahead for the nursing home appeared.
  — Glenn Garvin, miamiherald, 22 Sep. 2017
• Brandt’s debut hasn’t quite the Bard’s poetry, but the plaintive conscience is present and correct.
  — Guy Lodge, Variety, 25 Feb. 2024
• This plaintive cry is not new, at least to anyone who has paid attention to Jewish debate in the last decade or more.
  — Jane Eisner, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2022
• This is such a plaintive, nonbitter breakup song—every line is good.
  — Glamour, 11 Feb. 2020
• But the sharp — and sometimes plaintive — edge in the call for candidates to work together seems in part intensified by the sense among respondents that the stakes are just too high now to do otherwise.
  — Megan Verlee, The Denver Post, 8 June 2024
• Miller’s Taya is plaintive, searching, but also resolute, willing to face the reality that life with a perpetual ghost is no life at all.
  — Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 28 June 2024

Last Updated: 20 Dec 2024