sadness

SAD

abbr.

seasonal affective disorder

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sad  (sd)

adj. sad·der, sad·dest

1. Affected or characterized by sorrow or unhappiness.

2. Expressive of sorrow or unhappiness.

3. Causing sorrow or gloom; depressing: a sad movie; sad news.

4. Deplorable; sorry: a sad state of affairs; a sad excuse.

5. Dark-hued; somber.

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[Middle English, weary, sorrowful, from Old English sæd, sated, weary; see s- in Indo-European roots.]

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sadly adv.

sadness n.

Synonyms: sad, melancholy, sorrowful, doleful, woebegone, desolate
These adjectives mean affected with or marked by unhappiness, as that caused by affliction. Sad is the most general: "Better by far you should forget and smile/Than that you should remember and be sad" (Christina Rossetti).
Melancholy can refer to lingering or habitual somberness or sadness: a melancholy poet's gloomy introspection.
Sorrowful applies to emotional pain as that resulting from loss: sorrowful mourners at the funeral.
Doleful describes what is mournful or morose: the doleful expression of a reprimanded child.
Woebegone suggests grief or wretchedness, especially as reflected in a person's appearance: "His sorrow . . . made him look . . . haggard and . . . woebegone" (George du Maurier).
Desolate applies to one that is beyond consolation: "No one is so accursed by fate,/No one so utterly desolate,/But some heart, though unknown,/Responds unto his own" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

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Sadness 

See Also: DEJECTION, EMOTIONS, GLOOM

1. As full of sorrow as the sea of sands —William Shakespeare
2. Could feel it [the sadness] pierce him like a foreign body in his heart —Amos Oz
3. Crest-fallen as a dried pear —William Shakespeare
4. Crest-fallen as a spy who had been caught by a thief —Victor Hugo
5. Depressing as the last day of fishing —Robert Traver
6. A feeling of sadness that is not akin to pain, resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles rain —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
7. (Scarlett) felt bereft, as though she had sold one of her children —Margaret Mitchell

   The sadness which inspired the comparison was that experienced by the heroine of Gone With the Wind when she sold her lumber business.

8. Felt melancholy grip him, like a pain in the heart —Mary McCarthy
9. (I felt depressed,) filled to the neck with sadness like a carafe with bad wine —T. Coraghessan Boyle
10. His heart throbbed like a bruise in the sigh —Norman Mailer
11. His heart would sink down to his bowels like lead —Thomas Wolfe
12. Looked and acted like a man who had just driven home from a couple of heart-rending funerals —George Ade

    See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS

13. Melancholy as a discarded statesman —William Mountford
14. Melancholy as a fiddle with one string —Thomas Holcroft
15. My heart is within me as an ash in the fire —Algernon Charles Swinburne
16. My heart was as lead —Jack London
17. Pathetic as all final efforts —Alice McDermott
18. Pathetic as an autumn leaf —George Moore
19. (A low call,) plaintive as a shepherd calling, to sheep who need no strident invocation —Arthur A. Cohen
20. Sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string —Jean Rhys
21. Sad as night —William Shakespeare
22. Sad as professional mourners —F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Sad as twilight —George Eliot
24. Saddening as a forest fire —Robert Traver
25. Sad like graveyards —Terry Bisson
26. Sad … like somebody who’s pilot light got blown out a long time ago —Susan Kelly
27. Sadness … gnawed like a rat at his mind —Roderic Jeffries
28. Sadness, like that inspired by a grave strain of music —Joseph Conrad
29. Sadness that, over the years, had gathered in his chest like matter in a clogged drain —Joyce Reiser Kornblatt
30. There would come, like water washing over a sunken buoy, the little knell of sadness —Hortense Calisher

Just as similes are used to give dramatic beginning to literary works, they can also be used to wind things up, as demonstrated by this final sentence from Calisher’s novel, Point of Departure.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	sadness - emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being unhappiness feeling - the experiencing of affective and emotional states; "she had a feeling of euphoria"; "he had terrible feelings of guilt"; "I disliked him and the feeling was mutual" dolefulness - sadness caused by grief or affliction heaviness - persisting sadness; "nothing lifted the heaviness of her heart after her loss" melancholy - a feeling of thoughtful sadness misery - a feeling of intense unhappiness; "she was exhausted by her misery and grief" forlornness, loneliness, desolation - sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned tearfulness, weepiness - sadness expressed by weeping sorrow - an emotion of great sadness associated with loss or bereavement; "he tried to express his sorrow at her loss" regret, ruefulness, sorrow, rue - sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment; "he drank to drown his sorrows"; "he wrote a note expressing his regret"; "to his rue, the error cost him the game" cheerlessness, uncheerfulness - a feeling of dreary or pessimistic sadness depression - sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy dejectedness, dispiritedness, downheartedness, low-spiritedness, lowness - a feeling of low spirits; "he felt responsible for her lowness of spirits" happiness - emotions experienced when in a state of well-being
	2.	sadness - the state of being sad; "she tired of his perpetual sadness" sorrowfulness, sorrow unhappiness - state characterized by emotions ranging from mild discontentment to deep grief bereavement, mourning - state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one poignance, poignancy - a state of deeply felt distress or sorrow; "a moment of extraordinary poignancy"
	3.	sadness - the quality of excessive mournfulness and uncheerfulness lugubriousness, gloominess uncheerfulness - not conducive to cheer or good spirits

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sadness

noun unhappiness, sorrow, grief, tragedy, depression, the blues, misery, melancholy, poignancy, despondency, bleakness, heavy heart, dejection, wretchedness, gloominess, mournfulness, dolour (poetic), dolefulness, cheerlessness, sorrowfulness It is with a mixture of sadness and joy that I say farewell.
happiness, delight, pleasure, joy, cheer, satisfaction, ecstasy, enjoyment, bliss, felicity, exuberance, contentment, wellbeing, high spirits, elation, gaiety, jubilation, merriment, cheerfulness, gladness, cheeriness, light-heartedness

Translations

sadness [ˈsædnɪs] N → tristeza f

sadness [ˈsædnɪs] n → tristesse f

sadness

n → Traurigkeit f; our sadness at his death → unsere Trauer über seinen Tod

sadness [ˈsædnɪs] n → tristezza