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View synonyms for sorrow

sorrow

[ sor-oh, sawr-oh ]

noun

  1. distress caused by loss, affliction, disappointment, etc.; grief, sadness, or regret.
  2. a cause or occasion of grief or regret, as an affliction, a misfortune, or trouble:

    His first sorrow was the bank failure.

    Synonyms: adversity

  3. the expression of grief, sadness, disappointment, or the like:

    muffled sorrow.



verb (used without object)

  1. to feel sorrow; grieve.

    Synonyms: lament, mourn

sorrow

/ ˈsɒrəʊ /

noun

  1. the characteristic feeling of sadness, grief, or regret associated with loss, bereavement, sympathy for another's suffering, for an injury done, etc
  2. a particular cause or source of regret, grief, etc
  3. Also calledsorrowing the outward expression of grief or sadness
“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


verb

  1. intr to mourn or grieve
“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
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Derived Forms

  • ˈsorrowfully, adverb
  • ˈsorrowfulness, noun
  • ˈsorrowful, adjective
  • ˈsorrower, noun
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Other Words From

  • sorrow·er noun
  • sorrow·less adjective
  • un·sorrow·ing adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of sorrow1

First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English sorg; cognate with German Sorge, Dutch zorg, Old Norse sorg, Gothic saurga; (verb) Middle English sorwen, Old English sorgian; cognate with Old High German sorgôn
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Word History and Origins

Origin of sorrow1

Old English sorg; related to Old Norse sorg, Gothic saurga, Old High German sworga
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Idioms and Phrases

see drown one's sorrows ; more in sorrow than in anger .
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Synonym Study

Sorrow, distress, grief, misery, woe imply bitter suffering, especially as caused by loss or misfortune. Sorrow is the most general term. Grief is keen suffering, especially for a particular reason. Distress implies anxiety, anguish, or acute suffering caused by the pressure of trouble or adversity. Misery suggests such great and unremitting pain or wretchedness of body or mind as crushes the spirit. Woe is deep or inconsolable grief or misery.
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Example Sentences

It was always secondary to the experience of sitting around the table and listening to stories from the people I love, fueled by a second bottle of wine and a shared history of joy and sorrow.

In grief it is difficult to think of everyone, but when you do, beauty intrudes upon sorrow, and something lifts.

Joy, on the other hand, has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and even—sometimes, most especially—in the midst of suffering.

Kids who use dark play to explore violence, sin, and sorrow can make their parents mighty uncomfortable.

What makes The Idiot so good, the place where both the humor and the sorrow lie, is in the accumulation of its main character Selin’s observations as she watches “all the irrelevant garbage.”

From Vox

He also wrote the single, “Divine Sorrow,” with Swedish DJ Avicii to help raise money for (RED).

How did this track with Avicii, “Divine Sorrow,” benefiting the RED campaign to fight AIDS come about?

Far from a rant, her tone throughout is cool and methodical, and her critiques are couched more in sorrow than in anger.

Her pallid young face, brow sweating with fear and pain, yet resolute and stiff with sorrow, makes you want to cry.

“The U.S. celebrates the day it became independent every year with fireworks rather than sorrow,” he said.

For of sadness cometh death, and it overwhelmeth the strength, and the sorrow of the heart boweth down the neck.

In withdrawing aside sorrow remaineth: and the substance of the poor is according to his heart.

Three short years had not taught her how to bear sorrow with full knowledge.

The baby had thrived; as placid, laughing a little thing as if its mother had never known sorrow.

Could he have a sorrow which she might chase away, and, having the power, lack the heart to do it?

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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.

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