Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Full of wishful yearning.
- adj. Pensively sad; melancholy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Silent; hushed; standing in mute attention.
- Full of thoughts; contemplative; musing; pensive.
- Wishful; longing.
Wiktionary
- adj. full of yearning or longing
- adj. sad and thoughtful
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Longing; wishful; desirous.
- adj. Full of thought; eagerly attentive; meditative; musing; pensive; contemplative.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. showing pensive sadness
Etymologies
- Presumably from *whistful, from whist ("silent") + -ful, based on older wistly. It is implausible that it derives from wishful, the required sound change being wishful → *wisful → wistful, and could not occur in Modern English, particularly not with wishful continuing in use. However, the sense of “longing” appears to be influenced by wishful, with wistful being an ambiguous poetic word. (Wiktionary)
- From obsolete wistly, intently. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It made me want to hold on tight to things and to people… His words trailed off, his expression wistful.”
“She glanced out the window, her expression wistful.”
“The younger man watched the First Officer leave, his expression wistful, before turning back to the others.”
“And then, if he is at all observant, he may be aggrieved and astonished to find her again wistful or hurt.”
“He grinned with a certain wistful pathos in his ring-battered countenance, and went on cherishing his strength with the jealousy of which only Age is capable.”
“He continued: "Sir Dominic, ah, has been known to indulge in what he describes as wistful fantasizing relevant to his occupation.”
“Is it just me or does Ace’s description have a certain wistful air? owenz Says:”
“Is it just me or does Ace’s description have a certain wistful air?”
“When Johnny talked about midgets, his expression turned wistful, like he wished he could go backward in time.”
“Once upon a time, you got booed and pelted with spoiled produce because of your own naturally lackluster performance on the field," recalled a wistful McSweeney.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wistful’.
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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PF
metastatistics, yarn, Providence, psychopomp, psychopompos, husk, corporeal, infidel, fortuitously, wistful, tarried, tarry and 4 more...
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Introverted
Quiet, shy, Introverted, reserved, isolated, mysterious
abashed, alienated, alone, anonymous, antisocial, ascetic, asocial, austere, autonomous, awkward, bashful, clannish and 91 more...
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Sound Sex
taciturn, deflower, recursive, parapraxis, comitative, atelic, awkward, eccentric, libidinous, astereognosis, aloof, moonglade and 50 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1847 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Holli
Cancer, Mercury, water, moon, dark, emotion, nostalgia, angst, brooding, isolation, shadow, corner and 145 more...
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Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Flutter
tuberose, golden apple, apple cider, unicorn, extraordinary, Pleiades, Merope, speckle, glitter, rose, pitter-pat, whale and 314 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wistful.
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