sadness
Americannoun
-
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?
Etymology
Origin of sadness
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English sadnesse; sad ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )
Explanation
Someone who's blue feels sadness, like a little girl whose best friend has moved away. Use the noun sadness when you're talking about sorrow. Sadness may be the overwhelming mood at a funeral, for example, or an elderly man might describe his life's greatest sadness as letting his childhood sweetheart get away. An interesting thing about sadness is that its original meaning was "seriousness." It wasn't until the 1600s that it came to mean "full of sorrow."
Vocabulary lists containing sadness
Obama's speech at Connecticut vigil
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ness
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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.
Sadness is also in the mix, as it has been since that devastating song about abandonment in “Toy Story 2.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
The Summertime Sadness singer will be at the Principality Stadium on 23 June for her first performance in Wales.
From BBC • Nov. 26, 2024
Sadness is often the primary emotion in a breakup song.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2024
Sadness, rebelliousness and a puckish sense of humor are there in her eyes.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2023
Sadness washed over him, almost as if he were reliving those few terrible minutes of awakening in darkness to the memory loss.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
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.
