WORD OF THE DAY
Wistfully describes something that's done with longing or regret. You might smile wistfully while sitting on a train that's pulling away from the station, leaving your hometown behind.
If there's a vague sense of yearning behind an action, you can say it's done wistfully. People sigh wistfully, gaze wistfully, and wave goodbye wistfully — thinking about the past or what you are leaving behind with a little bit of sadness. In the 1600s, wistfully had a completely different meaning — from the now-obsolete word wist, or intent — done with close attention. It gained today's meaning in the early 1700s.
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Vocabulary lists containing wistfully
In the 1960s, tensions between two rival gangs separated along economic lines reach a violent breaking point.
When tragedy strikes, Esperanza's family has to leave their ranch in Mexico and move to a farmworkers' camp during the Great Depression.
After emigrating from Barbados to Connecticut Colony, sixteen-year-old Katherine (Kit) Tyler finds herself at odds with her Puritan neighbors, which turns dangerous when she befriends a Quaker woman accused of being a witch.
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean writes letters to the boys for whom she has romantic feelings — letters she never intends to send. When someone starts secretly mailing the letters out, Lara Jean and one of the recipients, Peter, decide to team up and fake a relationship to make their current crushes jealous.
