Get to know Wistful better with 10+ real example sentences, the meaning and synonyms like pensive or sad.
Wistful meaning
- Full of longing or yearning.
- Sad and thoughtful.
Using Wistful
- The main meaning on this page is: Full of longing or yearning. | Sad and thoughtful.
- Useful related words include: pensive, sad.
- In the example corpus, wistful often appears in combinations such as: the wistful, of wistful, with wistful.
Context around Wistful
- Average sentence length in these examples: 22.3 words
- Position in the sentence: 3 start, 9 middle, 8 end
- Sentence types: 20 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Wistful
- In this selection, "wistful" usually appears in the middle of the sentence. The average example has 22.3 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, bit, little, slower, response, days and immersive stand out and add context to how "wistful" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include a bit wistful about the and a little wistful. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "wistful" sits close to words such as abnormality, absenteeism and absorbent, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with wistful
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
Suddenly, Ward sounds very wistful. (5 words)
I thought it looked a little wistful. (7 words)
Typically, Burton makes films about wistful, death-obsessed outsiders. (9 words)
Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian had his first and only chart-topping solo hit in 1976 with the wistful "Welcome Back," theme song for the Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta-starring sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. (35 words)
As the clock struck midnight, the sky swallowed the wistful days of summer’s rays, leaving behind melted ice cream drips and spontaneous road trips, impatiently awaiting their turn to conquer the dog days. (34 words)
But it takes a special artist to do what Whitters has done: Here, she creates a wistful, immersive world, bringing the giddy euphoria of first love to life for even the most jaded listener. (34 words)
Example sentences (20)
Asked what priority shopping was this year, “the gnome!” was the wistful response.
As the clock struck midnight, the sky swallowed the wistful days of summer’s rays, leaving behind melted ice cream drips and spontaneous road trips, impatiently awaiting their turn to conquer the dog days.
But it takes a special artist to do what Whitters has done: Here, she creates a wistful, immersive world, bringing the giddy euphoria of first love to life for even the most jaded listener.
Even now visitors to the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam web site, where cameras watch the eagle family 24/7, bemoan her loss and describe in wistful terms the possibility that she could return.
His Academy Award winning theme for The Last Emperor (1987) is exquisitely placed between wistful and melancholy.
How much happier I had been a few weeks before, I thought with a wistful chuckle, when I would have grabbed her purse without troubling myself.
If anything, it’s a bit wistful about the dissonances between wealth and lack and all the other forces that drive people away from truly close connection with the food they eat.
I thought it looked a little wistful.
Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian had his first and only chart-topping solo hit in 1976 with the wistful "Welcome Back," theme song for the Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta-starring sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
Selena Gomez looks beautiful and wistful in series of new selfies.
Suddenly, Ward sounds very wistful.
That melancholy lifted with bigger, bolder rock numbers (“Burn,” “Primary,” and especially “Shake Dog Shake”) and slower, wistful plaints (“Charlotte Sometimes,” “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”).
The anime tells a wistful tale of the impermanence of human and android life, and the feelings associated with AI.
The sentimental, wistful vibe made it a perfect song to play at weddings.
Typically, Burton makes films about wistful, death-obsessed outsiders.
But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world”—but it feels rote more than it does wistful.
Co-produced by and Harold Shedd -- the pair that co-produced all of Keith's self-titled debut album -- the song is about a man wistful for a different kind of life.
Every technology has its day, and once it is replaced, there’s no going back — except among some wistful aficionados.
Just as the song asks “Do you remember?” so too does “Robot Dreams,” a sweetly wistful little movie that, like a good pop song, expresses something profound without wasting a word.
Like every guy in my age group sighs with a wistful smile when remembering playing Goldeneye 64 all night surrounded by friends and pizza boxes.
Common combinations with wistful
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- the wistful 8×
- of wistful 5×
- with wistful 3×
- wistful and 2×
- wistful about 2×
- and wistful 2×
- wistful in 2×
- wistful tale 2×
- wistful for 2×
- not wistful 2×