doleful
/ˈdoʊlfəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held."
- "A doleful expression that tugged at my heartstrings."
- "A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, / As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames / No light; but rather darkness visible / Served only to discover sights of woe, / Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace / And rest can never dwell, hope never comes / That comes to all, but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed / With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed."
- "O King this is very doleful. It is told that that traveller came at last to the utter End and there was a mighty gulf, and in the darkness at the bottom of the gulf one small god crept, no bigger than a hare, whose voice came crying in the cold: “I know not.” And beyond the gulf was nought, only the small god crying."
- "“We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: doleful
Inflected Forms
more doleful (comparative)
dolefuller (comparative)
dolefuler (comparative)
most doleful (superlative)
dolefullest (superlative)
dolefulest (superlative)