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 am sad to say after decades supporting USC, I rooted for Oregon after witnessing that late hit Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
As Ms. Perry writes, “what was funny existed alongside what was intolerably sad, and the process of dying struck us as both quite ordinary, really almost a household task, but also incomprehensibly strange.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The funny thing is, it doesn’t just make you depressed about plastic surgery and sad women and sleazy TV executives.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
"It is a sad day for you today to be sentenced in a crown court," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
“Married other girls, sad to say. Now, Eben, if you ever mention a word of this to your aunt, there’ll be trouble for you.”
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
But it’s not the absolute level of SAD that impacts the stock market, but changes from one month’s level to the next.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
SAD and the PSL effect can provide us with some of that rationale.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
One of the ways you can combat SAD is to brighten up your home.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
She said there were steps that could be taken if a person suspected they had SAD including changes to lifestyle, such as diet and physical activity.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2023
A common first symptom of SAD is the belief that one hears children’s voices in one’s head.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
Or people could generally be sadder than they were before the pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
"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
Nothing is sadder than to watch people stroll past that memorial as if nothing is out of the ordinary, our civic pride and historical perspective crushed under the weight of indifference.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2026
"Nothing can make me sadder, or diminish my value more than losing my dad, one of my best mates and the rock of our family."
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2025
Sometimes you think your story is so sad that no one could have a sadder story.
From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar
Chopin’s Prelude in B Minor, which she played at her brother’s funeral, is “the saddest song in the world,” a piece whose lack of resolution is a “testament to the never-ending ways of grief.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Also read: Running out of money is not the saddest retirement mistake you can make.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Anton Du Beke, who was her partner on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, said he was devastated by her death, which he called the "saddest of news".
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
“I’ve been going back and forth on what the saddest song on the record is, but I think this one might be it,” Rodrigo said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
One of the saddest messages we code talkers ever received came on April 12, 1945.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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.
