piteous
Americanadjective
-
exciting or deserving pity
-
archaic having or expressing pity
Synonym Usage
See pitiful.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of piteous
1250–1300; Middle English; replacing pitous < Old French < Medieval Latin pietōsus. See pity, -ous
Explanation
If something's piteous, it makes you feel pity and concern. The piteous cries of the orphaned kittens under your porch might convince you to climb under there and gather them up so you could feed them. Use the adjective piteous when you want to describe something that deserves your feelings of compassion and sympathy. A baby's cry, a miserable facial expression, and a pleading voice can all be piteous if they make you feel bad and want to help. The root word of piteous is the Latin pietas, meaning dutiful conduct or compassion. In Medieval Latin, it became pietosus and meant both merciful and pitiful.
Vocabulary lists containing piteous
Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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An Excerpt from "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead
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The Jungle Book
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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.
It’s a performance as piteous as it is quietly moving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
"The amount you get per stream is piteous, so it's more likely you're going to be in a flat-share with five other people in East London."
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2024
But Homes retains a quality of resigned sympathy with these anxious, immensely self-important characters — a tincture of compassion that makes them feel all the more piteous.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2022
Zineb’s tale is set in 1950s French Indochina, where she tells a client about her fateful past as well as her piteous fantasy of becoming a film star in India.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2020
I must have struck a sufficiently piteous figure because she gathered me in for a hug and a kiss, “It’s nothing to cry over, sweet one. Just remember to always think about what you’re doing.”
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
