sad
adjective
affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful.
sad
1 American
[sad]
/ sæd /
adjective
-
sadder,
comparative
-
saddest
superlative
-
affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful.
to feel sad because a close friend has moved away.
- Synonyms:
- melancholy, dejected, depressed, downhearted, downcast, gloomy, discouraged, disconsolate, despondent, unhappy
- Antonyms:
- happy
-
expressive of or characterized by sorrow.
sad looks;
a sad song.
-
causing sorrow.
a sad disappointment;
sad news.
-
(of color) somber, dark, or dull; drab.
-
deplorably bad; sorry.
a sad attempt.
-
Obsolete. firm or steadfast.
sād
2
American
[sahd]
/ sɑd /
noun
SAD
3
American
sad
1
British
/ sæd /
adjective
-
feeling sorrow; unhappy
-
causing, suggestive, or expressive of such feelings
a sad story
-
unfortunate; unsatisfactory; shabby; deplorable
her clothes were in a sad state
-
informal ludicrously contemptible; pathetic
he's a sad, boring little wimp
-
(of pastry, cakes, etc) not having risen fully; heavy
-
(of a colour) lacking brightness; dull or dark
-
archaic serious; grave
verb
SAD
2
British
abbreviation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sad1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English sæd “grave, heavy, weary,” originally “sated, full”; cognate with German satt, Gothic saths “full, satisfied”; akin to Latin satis “enough,” satur “sated,” Greek hádēn “enough.” See satiate, saturate
Origin of sād2
From Arabic
Explanation
When you're sad, you feel unhappy. If you've ever experienced the death of a pet you loved deeply, you know exactly what it means to feel sad. You might use the adjective sad informally to describe something that's pathetic or that you feel scornful or disdainful about. For example, you might comment on your friend's elaborate homemade hat by saying, "That hat is just sad," though it wouldn't be very nice of you to say it. The term "sad sack" became popular during World War II and has been used ever since to refer to an incompetent, slightly pitiful person.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"I was sad because I was like, nobody cares about me. I'm unimportant. I'm finally entering middle age and I should do something for me."
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
There was something sad in our meetups always having to be clandestine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
"The outcome has been very tough and very sad," Marisa said in the central city of Toledo, which has received most of the bodies from the collision outside the village of Urda.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
The sad thing is, this boom produced legitimately compelling offerings and important stories, told well, too.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
I’m struck by how sad she looks, but I resist the temptation to comfort her.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
One study, “Seasonal Asset Allocation: Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows,” found a strong inverse correlation between the stock market and SAD.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
SAD is normally associated with the winter months, such as January and February.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Around two million people across the UK have SAD, also known as "winter depression" due to it being amplified in the winter.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2023
"I can come up here or anywhere feeling quite low, a bit pessimistic, negative, all the things that come with SAD and functioning mentally at 30 to 40%, you know, struggling," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2023
SAD is an extremely contagious disease that causes total memory loss in those who contract it.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
"We were able to find the body; some people couldn't. And that seems even sadder to me," she said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
The Financial Times's Danny Leigh dished out three stars, saying it paints a "portrait of tech rendering the young both sadder and meaner".
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
And even sadder to see globalization tossed aside like last year’s toy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
It’s also well cast, with the appealing Blyth always in control of the undercurrents, especially alongside the excellent Tovey, playing a sadder, wiser closetedness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2025
And even though they are moving away from the nest, away from the eaglet’s cries, somehow they feel louder, sharper, sadder.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
“Saying goodbye to you was one of the saddest things I’ve ever done,” he remembers her saying.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
Rather, he sounded like what he was—a damaged, thwarted middle-aged boy soprano, one of the saddest things in the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
"She would make the angriest bloke smile, and the saddest lady laugh, that's just who she was... she was who everyone went to when they needed to be fixed."
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The best documented and maybe saddest story is that of a bear named “Monarch.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Lexie asked, and when Pearl said, “She can keep a secret,” this seemed like the saddest thing Lexie had ever heard, and she burst into tears.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
