Doleful

//ˈdoʊlfəl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.

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

Adjective
  1. 1
    filled with or evoking sadness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
mournfulaffectingafflictedaggrievedanguishedatrabiliary

Example

More examples

"My dog died yesterday, so I'm quite doleful."

Etymology

From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole + -ful.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.