We could not bear to listen to the sick child's pathetic cries.
Source: tatoeba (318451)
Pathetic
//pəˈθɛtɪk//
Synonyms for "pathetic" (198 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (40)
Strong matches (59)
Adjective(30 words)
disappointingdiscomfortingdisgracefuldismaldismayingdistressfuldistressingdolefuldolorificdolorogenicdolorousdrearyemotionalemotivefeebleforlorngaudygimcrackygrievousheartrending
Show 8 more words
Adjective(1 words)
Related words (99)
Adjective(9 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Synonyms
4 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
10 entriesderived from
1 entriesrelated to
22 entriesShowing 16 of 22 words.
similar
4 entriesTranslations
94 translations across 36 languages.
Afrikaans
1 entries- pateties adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Belarusian
2 entries- жа́ласны adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- убо́гі adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Bulgarian
3 entries- жалък adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- прочувствен adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- трогателен adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Catalan
2 entries- commovedor adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- patètic adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Chinese Mandarin
2 entries- 可憐 /可怜 adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- 可笑 adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Czech
4 entries- dojemný adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- trapný adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- ubohý adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- žalostný adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Danish
4 entries- medynkvækkende adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- patetisk adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- sørgelig adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- ynkelig adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Dutch
4 entries- deerniswekkend adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- meelijwekkend adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- sneu adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- zielig adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Estonian
2 entries- haletsusväärne adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- liigutav adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Finnish
2 entries- säälittävä adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- säälittävä adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
French
3 entries- lamentable adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- minable adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- pathétique adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Georgian
2 entries- ამაღელვებელი adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- პათეტიკური adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
German
4 entries- bemitleidenswert adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- erbärmlich adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- jämmerlich adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- mitleiderregend adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Greek
4 entries- άθλιος adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- αξιολύπητος adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- θλιβερός adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- κακόμοιρος adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Hebrew
1 entries- פתטי adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Hungarian
2 entries- szánalmas adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- szánalmas adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Indonesian
2 entries- payah adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- payah adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Italian
3 entries- meschino adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- patetico adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- penoso adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Japanese
4 entries- かわいそうな adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- 哀れな adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- 情けない adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- 痛ましい adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Korean
1 entries- 한심하다 adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Latin
2 entries- flēbilis adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- miserabilis adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Macedonian
3 entries- бе́ден adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- жа́лен adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- жа́лосен adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- patetisk adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Norwegian Nynorsk
1 entries- patetisk adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Persian
1 entries- رقتانگیز adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Polish
2 entries- żałosny adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- żałosny adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Portuguese
2 entries- patético adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- patético adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Romanian
3 entries- disperat adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- emoționant adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- patetic adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Russian
4 entries- душераздира́ющий adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- жа́лкий adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- жа́лостный adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- патети́ческий adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Slovene
2 entries- ganljiv adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- pomilovanja vreden adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Spanish
4 entries- patético adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- patético adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
- penoso adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- penoso adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Swedish
1 entries- patetisk adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Thai
2 entries- น่าสงสาร adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- น่าสมเพช adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Turkish
2 entries- acıklı adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- dokunaklı adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Ukrainian
3 entries- жа́лісний adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- патети́чний adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
- убо́гий adj (arousing scorn or contempt)
Yiddish
1 entries- פּאַטעטיש adj (arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion)
Sample sentences
20 total sentences available.
The Japanese people, thinking only of running away in such times, are pathetic.
Source: tatoeba (327090)
Or rather, is it not just pathetic that I think such whiny thoughts like this?
Source: tatoeba (327170)
You know you're in pathetic shape when you can't even do one chin-up.
Source: tatoeba (612235)
Showing 4 of 20 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.