sadness

[ sad-nis ]

/ ˈsæd nɪs /

the quality or state of being sad; sorrow: It’s frustrating to know the sadness you’re feeling and not be able to help you.

an instance of sorrow: How can you be so unaware of the sadnesses these children have experienced?

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First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English sadnesse; sad + -ness

Lady Edith is so sad that her sadness nearly set the whole damned house on fire.
‘Downton Abbey’ Review: A Fire, Some Sex, and Sad, Sad Edith|Kevin Fallon|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon labels the show a “crass stunt” on a “bottom-feeding vortex of sadness network.”
Your Husband Is Definitely Gay: TLC’s Painful Portrait of Mormonism|Samantha Allen|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Whenever I look for a vein of sadness in Oliona it melts away.
Russia’s Gold Digger Academy|Peter Pomerantsev|November 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His sadness over her descent into shooting up after managing to stay clean for a period is palpable.
Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues|William O’Connor|November 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The film often floats back and forth between these moments of satire and sadness.
‘Force Majeure’ and the Swedish Family Vacation From Hell|Alex Suskind|October 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
What sadness and difficulty may not his noble and generous spirit have had to encounter!
Alida|Amelia Stratton Comfield
His deportment was invariably grave; it was sobriety that stopped short of sadness.
Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3.|Benson J. Lossing
Some women's faces are in their brightness a prophecy, and some in their sadness a history.
Oriental Women|Edward Bagby Pollard
And you, when you remember to-day, dont let it be a memory only of sadness; but of my gratitude—my wondering gratitude.
Paths of Judgement|Anne Douglas Sedgwick
Wealth and honor and power were nothing to him; his life was tinged with sadness that nothing could cure.
The Martyr of the Catacombs|Anonymous