How to Use mournful in a Sentence

mournful

adjective
  • In truth, the mixing of the mournful and the clownish is a stale trope.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2021
  • The song was written in 1954 by Tomas Mendez about the dove’s mournful song.
    Sheryl Devore, chicagotribune.com, 13 Oct. 2021
  • There was grief again, and the mournful sound of bagpipes echoed again.
    James Barron, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2019
  • If the game ends in defeat, the block grows quiet and mournful.
    Sam Whiting, SFChronicle.com, 30 Jan. 2020
  • At more than 700 pages, this is the longest book in the series, the most mournful — and the slackest.
    Parul Sehgal, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2020
  • But the jarring, almost mournful wail of the train horn?
    Jennie Key, Cincinnati.com, 29 Aug. 2017
  • Things kicked off this morning, and the game has a vibe that’s both festive and mournful.
    Andrew Webster, The Verge, 18 July 2019
  • The mournful poetry of the muezzin’s call, the comfort of a day measured in prayer.
    Keija Parssinen, The New York Review of Books, 31 Jan. 2020
  • Her husband awoke around 1:30 a.m. to a mournful sound.
    Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2023
  • Even in its mournful moments, the songs stay upbeat and the sorrow is quick to pass.
    Maya Phillips, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2017
  • But the scene in the city, about 90 miles west of Caracas, was quiet and mournful on Thursday.
    Author: Vivian Sequera, Tibisay Romero, Anchorage Daily News, 29 Mar. 2018
  • My ears fill up with the mournful sound of the courting owls, my eyes fill up with moonlight and bright snow.
    Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune, 29 Jan. 2021
  • The tone that Obama strikes in lines like these is almost mournful.
    Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2020
  • Go ahead and sing that requiem for a dying league, but don’t be so mournful about it.
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Boris Vishnevsky is a slight man with thin graying hair, mournful eyes, and a beard.
    BostonGlobe.com, 16 Sep. 2021
  • Well, 2019 is making that mournful era look like child’s play.
    Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 30 May 2019
  • The friend complies with a mournful love song, and the movie seems to hold its breath until the final notes rise into the night air.
    Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2017
  • The singer shared the mournful track with the first half of a two-part music video directed by Jackson Tisi.
    Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 18 June 2021
  • This mournful ballad has been heard around the world for over a century.
    Selena Barrientos, Good Housekeeping, 22 Jan. 2023
  • Buried by the Bernards is not a show that considers death with solemn, mournful silence.
    Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 12 Feb. 2021
  • The results range from EDM to ’70s funk to mournful piano solos.
    Nichole Perkins, Vulture, 17 Aug. 2021
  • Her tone when speaking of the subject that once enthralled her is mournful.
    Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 5 Dec. 2022
  • That’s why life has its happy seasons and its mournful ones.
    Ron Grossman, chicagotribune.com, 26 Dec. 2017
  • All dogs look silly and mournful when wet; all dogs have urgent ears.
    Leslie Kendall Dye, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • The one whose songs, on days like these mournful anniversaries, come from what sounds like every part of the city. Juan Gabriel is here.
    Roberto José Andrade Franco, Rolling Stone, 30 Aug. 2021
  • Taps was played by a bugler in the Red Arrow veterans group, who pulled his mask down to sound the mournful salute.
    Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 Sep. 2020
  • In 1976, two teens, Kip and Alice, set off on a road trip full of self-discovery and the joyous highs and mournful lows of youth.
    Seattle Times Staff, The Seattle Times, 25 May 2017
  • In 2016, after Trump’s victory, a mournful pall hung over the show.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2020
  • In this context, the shapeless clothes take on a mournful air, the appearance of a funeral shroud.
    Rhian Sasseen, The Atlantic, 14 Oct. 2024
  • The movie, which ends on an incredibly cruel note of irony, could use more of the mournful empathy of director David Cronenberg’s best work, including The Fly.
    Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 20 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mournful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: