That is a sobering note from a field where an optimistic outlook was once standard issue along with a gray flannel suit.

Levi Strauss, long a global visionary, sounds a sobering note.

Most striking, the showdown with Moscow has introduced a sobering note of pragmatism into the sometimes romantic politics of independence.

It was a sobering note to end the conference on, but there were no further questions.

The sobering note is the specter of doping.

There was only one sobering note.

It was a sobering note on which to begin.

For all its sobering notes, Ms. Whiting's show is generously spiced with humor.

But among the confident young newcomers who have transformed Williamsburg in recent years, the attacks have struck a sobering note.

But the Guinness Mahon decision, although it had saved the company, had introduced a sobering note.