Definition of "plangent" []

• Loud and resounding: plangent bells. (adjective)
• Expressing or suggesting sadness; plaintive: "From a doorway came the plangent sounds of a guitar” ( Malcolm Lowry). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Still, no one is likely to go to Shakespeare's plangent farewell drama on the off-chance of chortling at the comic scenes."
• "There's a rich tradition of plangent, slightly overheated sacred art that treats the spirit as flesh - think Correggio and Barocci, among others."
• "In this and many ways, Moving Pictures is a plangent and honest book, rendered all the more affecting by its modulation and detachment."