Word.ws English Dictionary

plaintful

plaintful adjective: complaining; sorrowful.

Adjective

plaintful (comparative more plaintful, superlative most plaintful)

  1. (obsolete) complaining; sorrowful
    • my plaintful tonguea. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...

Forms of plaintful

comparativemore plaintful
superlativemost plaintful

Origin of plaintful

From plaint + -ful.

Questions about plaintful

What does plaintful mean?
Plaintful means complaining; sorrowful.
What part of speech is plaintful?
Plaintful is an adjective.

Words near plaintful in the dictionary

  1. plainswoman
  2. plainswomen
  3. plaint
  4. plaintext
  5. plaintexts
  6. plaintful
  7. plaintiff
  8. plaintiff in error
  9. plaintiff's attorney
  10. plaintiff's attorneys
  11. plaintiffs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plaintful (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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