plangent

Other forms: plangently

Any sound described as plangent echoes in a loud and often mournful way. There may be certain sad songs with plangent choruses that make you cry every time you hear them.

The haunting peal of a church bell is plangent, and a poet's plangent, resonant tones when she reads her latest work might send chills down your spine. The adjective plangent isn't one you hear very often (it appears most frequently in a literary context), but it's good for capturing a specific sound that evokes an emotional response. Plangent originally meant "beating with a loud sound," from the Latin plangere, "to strike or beat."