plangent
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ˈplæn.dʒənt/
- Literature
:
plangente
- Carly thinks they're remarkable, statuesque, and as she approaches, she hears the plangent engines in their throats, beckoning to her.
Examples
-
The dark night of chaos covered the world; plangent sounds came from the mountains, rocks, and caverns, as all nature moaned and wailed.
Academic text (2016) -
In all their desperate, plangent beauty, the shards of film that bear these traces are fragments shored against his own and the industry's ruin.
Academic text (1999) -
The fall released a plangent minor chord in the upper register of the instrument.
Fiction book (1992) -
The black notebook, with its plangent record of his youth, was too obvious, a memory too old, too well-used.
Fiction book (1997) -
A black shape floated lazily on the surface and produced four plangent chimes.
Fiction book (1993) -
The last plangent chord of "Adrift," the last whisper of Suzanne's voice, died away.
Fiction book (1994) -
No one can fail to be moved by the tender simplicity of these lines, which combine a plangent feeling of loss with a hard-nosed sense of inevitability: these things once seemed possible, now they are not to be.
Academic text (2000) -
The plangent melody of the cello filled the concert hall, evoking deep emotions in the audience.
-
As the rain fell, a plangent sound echoed through the empty streets, carrying a sense of sorrow.
-
The plangent notes of the violin resonated in the air, making everyone feel the weight of loss.
Synonyms
3
7.2
A deep, loud sound that fills a place
Slow and sad in a way that reminds you of a funeral
Very sad in a way that sounds like a funeral song
Antonyms
How Resonant
Surface Forms
Morphology
plangent = plang + ent
The root 'plang-' is not a recognizable modern English base and the adjective is formed via a learned Latinate suffix '-ent', so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning from English components.
Etymology
Plangent comes from the Latin verb plangere, which meant 'to strike' and later 'to lament'. You can see the same root in plaintive ('sad-sounding') and complain ('to say you are unhappy'), so plangent now means a loud, deep sound that often feels sad.