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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of plangent The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, that warhorse of English traditionalism, is mentioned six times, and his plangent music—invoking a lost, idyllic England; a greener, more pleasant land—could easily be the novel’s soundtrack. Charles McGrath, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024 That deft level of craft is maintained throughout, while the aching musical bed by contemporary composer Nico Muhly adds just the right tone of plangent despair tinged with hope. Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 That deft level of craft is maintained throughout, while the aching musical bed by contemporary composer Nico Muhly adds just the right tone of plangent despair tinged with hope. Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, that warhorse of English traditionalism, is mentioned six times, and his plangent music—invoking a lost, idyllic England; a greener, more pleasant land—could easily be the novel’s soundtrack. Charles McGrath, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024 The Tokyo composer and guitarist riffs on themes of real and imagined memories and the passage of time in plangent compositions replete with airy tones, childlike melodies, and molasses-thick smears of resonant harmony. Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 6 Oct. 2023 Indeed the music, with its banging, techno-style beats looped against plangent piano, analogizes Jamal’s predicament rather perfectly. Jessica Kiang, Variety, 25 Mar. 2023 The piercing sense of place that Samuel D. Hunter brings to his work, the majority of it set in his home state of Idaho, has perhaps never been accompanied by such plangent notes of sorrow as in his new play, Greater Clements. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Dec. 2019 Image The pool party is a squirmy tour de force embellished with a punctuating zoom and a plangent sense of dread that make Kayla’s isolation feel like alienation. Bo Burnham, New York Times, 11 July 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plangent
Adjective
  • At the vigil, the atmosphere appeared to be both mournful and celebratory of Scooter’s life.
    Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Season four will be the last for The Righteous Gemstones, and there are signs in this mournful (and vulgar/hilarious) episode that this extremely American empire may be going the way of Kelvin’s treehouse.
    Scott Tobias, Vulture, 23 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Such evidence could support the view that incessant loud noise amounts to torture or cruel treatment towards cetaceans, in turn galvanizing support for a new right to be free from such harm.
    David Gruber, Time, 24 Apr. 2025
  • According to cops, Mette, while inside Tamara’s Beauty Bar, a salon on Lenox Ave. near W. 113th St., heard a loud argument between two groups about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday.
    Nicholas Williams, New York Daily News, 24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • But with a will Strike all your harps and set them ringing; On hill and heath Let every breath Throw all its power into singing!
    Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2024
  • His ringing, carefree laugh mixed with soaring rhetoric about democracy, working families and hope.
    Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2024
Adjective
  • And every day, across from them, outside the clinic, about to enter or just leaving, there were women hugging each other and weeping.
    David Mamet, National Review, 11 Aug. 2022
  • The show manages to stay on the brink — always laughing, never quite weeping — for its entire length.
    Helen Shaw, Vulture, 8 Dec. 2021
Adjective
  • Sudden showers of beer, cider, and other mysterious fluids became as integral to the vibe as the deafening roar of the crowd.
    Andrew McNicol, CNN, 22 Mar. 2025
  • But there’s no deafening scream of a Formula 1 race.
    Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Original price: $104 For a round, stylish frame, go with these Ottoto Bellona frames.
    Christopher Murray, FOXNews.com, 17 Apr. 2025
  • First, the basics: Your face is either oblong, oval, round, heart-shaped, or square.
    Julie Ricevuto, Glamour, 15 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Keeping with tradition, the Vatican’s health department verifies the pope’s death in his home, and his body is placed in a coffin and transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing, the funeral Mass and burial.
    Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2025
  • The funeral mass will begin at 10am CET (1am PT) and take place on the parvis of Saint Peter’s Basilica, or the space in front of the basilica.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 22 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Their bathroom floor also pooled with water after showering, and noise from other apartments, like the shrill beeps of a low-battery smoke detector next door, carried through the paper-thin walls.
    Matthew Sedacca, Curbed, 22 Apr. 2025
  • As such, The Studio is shrill and talky, its chaotic scenes sparked by random performers like Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Olivia Wilde and Sarah Polley, all of whom want something from Remick.
    Peter Bart, Deadline, 10 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Plangent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plangent. Accessed 29 Apr. 2025.

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