pathetically
Americanadverb
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.
In opposition to the efficient-market hypothesis, which holds that stock prices reflect all available information, Haugen argued that “the pathetically inefficient market doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what is going on.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
“We compare, I think, pathetically, to the greatest generation,” said Butler.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2024
These remarks often came in response to some pathetically softball questions from Lemon: “You are in charge of an incredible platform, Elon. How do you feel that’s going?”
From Slate • Mar. 19, 2024
You can't entirely blame them: It all seems like badly written fiction, acted by Z-listers who dress poorly, act pathetically and perform like drunken zombies.
From Salon • Sep. 21, 2023
He was someone in the know who was always striving pathetically to find out what was going on.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions 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.
