adj
Meaning 1
Full of longing or yearning.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- His eyes grew wistful as he recalled his university days.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: desirous, yearnful
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
wistful
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈwɪstfəl/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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CMU ARPABET: W IH1 S T F AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Sad and thoughtful.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: despondent, unhappy, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 3
showing pensive sadness
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pensive
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
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, which could not occur in Modern English, particularly not with wishful continuing in use. However, the sense of “longing” appears to be influenced by wishful, making wistful an ambiguous poetic word.
Across languages
Translations
68 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: копнеещ (kopneešt) — full of longing
- Danish: længselsfuld — full of longing
- Danish: vemodig — full of longing
- Dutch: droefgeestig — full of longing
- Dutch: weemoedig — full of longing
- Dutch: melancholisch — full of longing
- Finnish: kaihoisa — full of longing
- Finnish: haikea — full of longing
- French: mélancolique — full of longing
- French: nostalgique — full of longing
- Galician: morriñento — full of longing
- Galician: morriñoso — full of longing
- Galician: saudoso — full of longing
- Galician: melancólico — full of longing
- German: wehmütig — full of longing
- German: sehnsuchtsvoll — full of longing
- German: nostalgisch — full of longing
- Hebrew: כמה (kaméha) — full of longing
- Icelandic: angurvær — full of longing
- Icelandic: löngunarfullur — full of longing
- Italian: malinconico — full of longing
- Italian: nostalgico — full of longing
- Korean: 애석(哀惜)해하는 (aeseokhaehaneun) — full of longing
- Māori: whēnako — full of longing
- Māori: whēnakonako — full of longing
- Māori: kōhau — full of longing
- Norwegian: lengselsfull — full of longing
- Norwegian: vemodig — full of longing
- Persian: حسرتمند (hasratmand) — full of longing
- Plautdietsch: bangrich — full of longing
- Polish: tęskny — full of longing
- Portuguese: saudoso — full of longing
- Portuguese: nostálgico — full of longing
- Portuguese: melancólico — full of longing
- Russian: тоску́ющий (toskújuščij) — full of longing
- Russian: томя́щийся (tomjáščijsja) — full of longing
- Russian: тоскли́вый (tosklívyj) — full of longing
- Serbo-Croatian: čežnjiv — full of longing
- Serbo-Croatian: čeznutljiv — full of longing
- Spanish: nostálgico — full of longing
- Swedish: längtansfull — full of longing
- Swedish: vemodig — full of longing
- Ukrainian: тужливий (tužlyvyj) — full of longing
- Ukrainian: ностальгійний (nostalʹhijnyj) — full of longing
- Bulgarian: тъжен (tǎžen) — sad and thoughtful
- Bulgarian: меланхоличен (melanholičen) — sad and thoughtful
- Finnish: haikea — sad and thoughtful
- Finnish: mietteliäs — sad and thoughtful
- German: schwermütig — sad and thoughtful
- German: melancholisch — sad and thoughtful
- Hebrew: עגום (agúm) — sad and thoughtful
- Hebrew: מלנכולי (melankóli) — sad and thoughtful
- Icelandic: angurvær — sad and thoughtful
- Icelandic: löngunarfullur — sad and thoughtful
- Norwegian Bokmål: vemodig — sad and thoughtful
- Polish: smutny — sad and thoughtful
- Polish: pełen zadumy — sad and thoughtful
- Russian: заду́мчивый (zadúmčivyj) — sad and thoughtful
- Russian: гру́стный (grústnyj) — sad and thoughtful
- Russian: печа́льный (pečálʹnyj) — sad and thoughtful
- Serbo-Croatian: sjetan — sad and thoughtful
- Serbo-Croatian: setan — sad and thoughtful
- Spanish: melancólico — sad and thoughtful
- Swedish: vemodig — sad and thoughtful
- Swedish: melankolisk — sad and thoughtful
- Ukrainian: задумливий (zadumlyvyj) — sad and thoughtful
- Ukrainian: сумний (sumnyj) — sad and thoughtful
- Ukrainian: меланхолійний (melanxolijnyj) — sad and thoughtful