English

Adverb

mournfully ‎(comparative more mournfully, superlative most mournfully)

1. In a mournful manner; as if in mourning for something.
   • 1927, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, page 140

     The steamer itself had vanished, but the great scroll of smoke still hung in the air and drooped like a flag mournfully in valediction.

   • 1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid

     "Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully; "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars."

Synonyms

• sorrowfully, ruefully

Hypernyms

• sadly