Sadness

//ˈsædnəs// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or emotion of being sad. uncountable

    "But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness."

  2. 2
    the quality of excessive mournfulness and uncheerfulness wordnet
  3. 3
    An event in one's life that causes sadness. countable

    "She has experienced many sadnesses in her forty years."

  4. 4
    emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being wordnet
  5. 5
    the state of being sad wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
sorrowforlornnessgloominesssorrowfulnessunhappinessdistress

Example

More examples

"Chris could not conceal his sadness when he heard that Beth had been unable to find his valuable watch."

Etymology

From Middle English sadnesse, equivalent to sad + -ness.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.