wistfulness
part of speech
noun (wistfulness — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
A gentle, sad feeling of longing for something you miss or cannot have. tree →
sense in the lessons
A feelings word in stories. In The Wind in the Willows Mole is full of wistfulness when he smells his old home in the snow, and Rat when he hears the Sea Rat's tales. Alice looks with wistfulness at the lovely garden through the tiny door. It is softer than grief and mixed with fond memory.
examples
- There was wistfulness in her voice as she talked about her old school. tree →
- Mole felt wistfulness for his little home. tree →
- Alice looked with wistfulness at the garden. tree →
- He watched the boats with wistfulness. tree →
- A wistfulness came over Grandma as she looked at the photos. tree →
- The song was full of wistfulness. tree →
note
Uncountable noun. From «wistful» (adjective), adverb «wistfully». Similar: longing, yearning, nostalgia.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wistfulness» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.