doleful
/ˈdoʊlfəl/adjective
doleful is spelled D-O-L-E-F-U-L: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 106,501st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, doleful means “Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in doleful?
| Letters | 7: D-O-L-E-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 106,501st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is doleful?
Doleful appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 106,501st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce doleful?
- /ˈdoʊlfəl/
Doleful has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-doleful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of doleful
- more doleful comparative
- dolefuller comparative
- dolefuler comparative
- most doleful superlative
- dolefullest superlative
- dolefulest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does doleful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Doleful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense evoking sadness:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does doleful come from?
From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).