sad

[ sad ]

/ sæd /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sad ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, sad·der, sad·dest.

affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful: to feel sad because a close friend has moved away.

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.

Nearby words

Origin of sad

before 1000; Middle English; Old English sæd grave, heavy, weary, orig. sated, full; cognate with German satt, Gothic saths full, satisfied; akin to Latin satis enough, satur sated, Greek hádēn enough. See satiate, saturate

SYNONYMS FOR sad

1. unhappy, despondent, disconsolate, discouraged, gloomy, downcast, downhearted, depressed, dejected, melancholy.

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ANTONYMS FOR sad

1. happy.

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Related formssad·ly, adverbsad·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sadness

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

British Dictionary definitions for sadness

SAD

abbreviation for

seasonal affective disorder

sad

/ (sæd) /

adjective sadder or saddest

feeling sorrow; unhappy

causing, suggestive, or expressive of such feelingsa sad story

unfortunate; unsatisfactory; shabby; deplorableher clothes were in a sad state

British informal ludicrously contemptible; pathetiche'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

NZ to express sadness or displeasure strongly

Derived Formssadly, adverbsadness, noun

Word Origin for sad

Old English sæd weary; related to Old Norse sathr, Gothic saths, Latin satur, satis enough

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sadness

sadness

early 14c., "seriousness," from sad + -ness. Meaning "sorrowfulness" is c.1500, perhaps c.1400.

sad

adj.

Old English sæd "sated, full, having had one's fill (of food, drink, fighting, etc.), weary of," from Proto-Germanic *sathaz (cf. Old Norse saðr, Middle Dutch sat, Dutch zad, Old High German sat, German satt, Gothic saþs "satiated, sated, full"), from PIE *seto- (cf. Latin satis "enough, sufficient," Greek hadros "thick, bulky," Old Church Slavonic sytu, Lithuanian sotus "satiated," Old Irish saith "satiety," sathach "sated"), from root *sa- "to satisfy" (cf. Sanskrit a-sinvan "insatiable").

Sense development passed through the meaning "heavy, ponderous" (i.e. "full" mentally or physically), and "weary, tired of" before emerging c.1300 as "unhappy." An alternative course would be through the common Middle English sense of "steadfast, firmly established, fixed" (e.g. sad-ware "tough pewter vessels") and "serious" to "grave." In the main modern sense, it replaced Old English unrot, negative of rot "cheerful, glad."

Meaning "very bad" is from 1690s. Slang sense of "inferior, pathetic" is from 1899; sad sack is 1920s, popularized by World War II armed forces (specifically by cartoon character invented by Sgt. George Baker, 1942, and published in U.S. Armed Forces magazine "Yank"), probably a euphemistic shortening of common military slang phrase sad sack of shit.

Medicine definitions for sadness

SAD

abbr.