The Articulate Professional online!

- Helping executives extend the reach and impact of their communications since 1993

Doleful

(pronounced dohl-ful)  adjective

Definition

1. full of grief; expressing sorrow; mournful.    2. causing grief or deep distress.

Main Example

• An interview that UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy gave to CBS's Bob Schieffer early last month is one which this author will never forget. Reporting from Sri Lanka, Bellamy spoke of seeing many parents spending entire days by the seashore, watching the ocean dolefully and waiting for the bodies of their missing children to be washed back to them.

Workplace Examples

• The latest sales figures are terrible! I expect the CEO to call an urgent meeting as soon as he learns about these doleful numbers.



• This tome on the American Indian contains dozens of rare photographs of both tribal leaders and ordinary folks taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and do you know what's striking? Every picture is a doleful one. There is not one face that is smiling or looks happy!

Other Examples

• the large brown and doleful eyes of this author's yellow Labrador retriever, Buddy; the doleful expression on the face of a child who has just lost a parent; the doleful tune of the hymn "Amazing Grace"
• somebody saying: "I urged my brother to sit out the panic selling that was happening at the time, but he lost his nerve and sold all his stocks, with doleful consequences! As you know, the market started climbing soon after and the Dow Jones has been several hundred points higher ever since."
• an economist's doleful outlook on the stock market; somebody sounding or looking doleful after a setback
• this author frequently writing and speaking dolefully about the havoc being wreaked on American jobs by the explosive, ongoing growth in the offshoring of white collar jobs to India

© 2005 V.J. Singal

This Month's Other Words

Products to sharply enhance your vocabulary:

Now available on CD-ROM: Past editions of Words of the Month.
Click here for more information.
The Articulate Professional (1995 revised ed.) is also available.
Place an order or click here for testimonials attesting to its effectiveness as a vocabulary-building tool.
Now get the CD-ROM and the book for only $27. Order now!

*Price includes tax & shipping in US/Canada.

Copyright © 1999 - 2005 by V.J. Singal. Articulate is a registered trademark.
Questions or comments may be sent directly to the author.
Phone: 281-463-2500, P.O. Box 841155, Houston, TX 77284-1155