He has a wistful look on his face.
Source: tatoeba (302918)
Wistful
//ˈwɪstfəl//
Synonyms for "wistful" (162 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (33)
Strong matches (48)
Related words (81)
Adjective(36 words)
Adjective(1 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
67 translations across 23 languages.
Bulgarian
3 entries- копнеещ adj (full of longing)
- меланхоличен adj (sad and thoughtful)
- тъжен adj (sad and thoughtful)
Danish
2 entries- længselsfuld adj (full of longing)
- vemodig adj (full of longing)
Dutch
3 entries- droefgeestig adj (full of longing)
- melancholisch adj (full of longing)
- weemoedig adj (full of longing)
Finnish
4 entries- haikea adj (full of longing)
- haikea adj (sad and thoughtful)
- kaihoisa adj (full of longing)
- mietteliäs adj (sad and thoughtful)
French
2 entries- mélancolique adj (full of longing)
- nostalgique adj (full of longing)
Galician
4 entries- melancólico adj (full of longing)
- morriñento adj (full of longing)
- morriñoso adj (full of longing)
- saudoso adj (full of longing)
German
4 entries- melancholisch adj (sad and thoughtful)
- nostalgisch adj (full of longing)
- schwermütig adj (sad and thoughtful)
- sehnsuchtsvoll adj (full of longing)
Hebrew
3 entries- כמה adj (full of longing)
- מלנכולי adj (sad and thoughtful)
- עגום adj (sad and thoughtful)
Icelandic
4 entries- angurvær adj (full of longing)
- angurvær adj (sad and thoughtful)
- löngunarfullur adj (full of longing)
- löngunarfullur adj (sad and thoughtful)
Italian
2 entries- malinconico adj (full of longing)
- nostalgico adj (full of longing)
Korean
1 entries- 애석(哀惜)해하는 adj (full of longing)
Māori
3 entries- kōhau adj (full of longing)
- whēnako adj (full of longing)
- whēnakonako adj (full of longing)
Norwegian
2 entries- lengselsfull adj (full of longing)
- vemodig adj (full of longing)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- vemodig adj (sad and thoughtful)
Persian
1 entries- حسرتمند adj (full of longing)
Plautdietsch
1 entries- bangrich adj (full of longing)
Polish
1 entries- tęskny adj (full of longing)
Portuguese
3 entries- melancólico adj (full of longing)
- nostálgico adj (full of longing)
- saudoso adj (full of longing)
Russian
4 entries- гру́стный adj (sad and thoughtful)
- заду́мчивый adj (sad and thoughtful)
- печа́льный adj (sad and thoughtful)
- томя́щийся adj (full of longing)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- setan adj (sad and thoughtful)
- sjetan adj (sad and thoughtful)
- sjetan adj (sad and thoughtful)
- čeznutljiv adj (full of longing)
Spanish
2 entries- melancólico adj (sad and thoughtful)
- nostálgico adj (full of longing)
Swedish
4 entries- längtansfull adj (full of longing)
- melankolisk adj (sad and thoughtful)
- vemodig adj (full of longing)
- vemodig adj (sad and thoughtful)
Ukrainian
4 entries- задумливий adj (sad and thoughtful)
- меланхолійний adj (sad and thoughtful)
- ностальгійний adj (full of longing)
- сумний adj (sad and thoughtful)
Sample sentences
9 total sentences available.
Her wistful smile belied the sadness she felt at having to leave.
Source: tatoeba (1183382)
Ah, this song makes me feel all wistful.
Source: tatoeba (10767034)
Her wistful smile betrayed the sadness she felt at having to leave.
Source: tatoeba (11531450)
Showing 4 of 9 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.