sad

(săd)

adj. sad·der, sad·dest

1. Showing, expressing, or feeling sorrow or unhappiness: a sad face.

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

3. Deplorable or inadequate; sorry: a sad state of affairs; a sad excuse.

4. Dark-hued; somber.

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

sad′ly adv.

sad′ness 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: "Now she was desolate, a widow in a foreign country" (Nigel Hamilton).

SAD

abbr.

seasonal affective disorder

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sadness

See Also: DEJECTION, EMOTIONS, GLOOM

As full of sorrow as the sea of sands —William Shakespeare
Could feel it [the sadness] pierce him like a foreign body in his heart —Amos Oz
Crest-fallen as a dried pear —William Shakespeare
Crest-fallen as a spy who had been caught by a thief —Victor Hugo
Depressing as the last day of fishing —Robert Traver
A feeling of sadness that is not akin to pain, resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles rain —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(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.
Felt melancholy grip him, like a pain in the heart —Mary McCarthy
(I felt depressed,) filled to the neck with sadness like a carafe with bad wine —T. Coraghessan Boyle
His heart throbbed like a bruise in the sigh —Norman Mailer
His heart would sink down to his bowels like lead —Thomas Wolfe
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
Melancholy as a discarded statesman —William Mountford
Melancholy as a fiddle with one string —Thomas Holcroft
My heart is within me as an ash in the fire —Algernon Charles Swinburne
My heart was as lead —Jack London
Pathetic as all final efforts —Alice McDermott
Pathetic as an autumn leaf —George Moore
(A low call,) plaintive as a shepherd calling, to sheep who need no strident invocation —Arthur A. Cohen
Sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string —Jean Rhys
Sad as night —William Shakespeare
Sad as professional mourners —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sad as twilight —George Eliot
Saddening as a forest fire —Robert Traver
Sad like graveyards —Terry Bisson
Sad … like somebody who’s pilot light got blown out a long time ago —Susan Kelly
Sadness … gnawed like a rat at his mind —Roderic Jeffries
Sadness, like that inspired by a grave strain of music —Joseph Conrad
Sadness that, over the years, had gathered in his chest like matter in a clogged drain —Joyce Reiser Kornblatt
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.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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

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

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sadness

noun

A feeling or spell of dismally low spirits:

blues, dejection, depression, despondence, despondency, doldrums, dolefulness, downheartedness, dumps, dysphoria, funk, gloom, glumness, heavy-heartedness, melancholy, mope (used in plural), mournfulness, unhappiness.

Translations

حزنحُزْن

smutek

sorg

Traurigkeit

λύπη

tristeza melancolía

tristesse abattement affliction désolation malheur

dapurleiki

smutektristeza

žalost

hüzünüzgünlüküzücü

悲哀

sadness

[ˈsædnɪs] N → tristeza f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sadness

[ˈsædnɪs] n → tristesse f

sadness

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

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sadness

[ˈsædnɪs] n → tristezza

sad

(sӕd) adjective

unhappy or causing unhappiness. She's sad because her son is ill; a sad face.

ˈsadness noun

ˈsadden verb

to make or become sad. She was saddened by her son's ingratitude.

ˈsadly adverb

He stared sadly at the ruins of his house.

sadness

n. tristeza, melancolía.

sadness

n tristeza