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# plaintive

«plaintive» in Mova's school dictionary: **Sounding sad, like someone complaining or crying softly:…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (plaintive; more plaintive, most plaintive)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Sounding sad, like someone complaining or crying softly: «a plaintive cry». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#m1)

2) Sad and gentle, asking for pity. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories this word describes sad sounds: a plaintive cry of a lost kitten, a plaintive song, a plaintive voice. In The Wind in the Willows the Mole's plaintive cry when he smells his old home makes the Rat turn back.

### examples

- The lost kitten gave a plaintive mew. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x1)
- We heard the plaintive cry of a seagull. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x2)
- «Ratty, please come back!» came the Mole's plaintive call. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x3)
- She sang a plaintive song about home. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x4)
- The dog gave a plaintive whine at the door. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x5)
- His plaintive voice made us feel sorry for him. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x6)
- Wendy was now almost overhead, and they could hear her plaintive cry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/#x7)

### note

Pronounced PLAIN-tiv. Related to «complain». Not the same as «plaintiff» (in law, the person who brings a case to court).

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «plaintive» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plaintive/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.