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wretched

American  

[rech-id] / ˈrɛtʃ ɪd /

adjective

wretcheder, wretchedest

1. 

   very unfortunate in condition or circumstances; miserable; pitiable.

   Synonyms:

   unhappy, forlorn, woebegone, woeful, distressed, dejected

2. characterized by or attended with misery and sorrow.

3. despicable, contemptible, or mean.

   a wretched miser.

   Synonyms:

   vile, base

4. poor, sorry, or pitiful; worthless.

   a wretched job of sewing.

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wretched British  

/ ˈrɛtʃɪd /

adjective

1. in poor or pitiful circumstances

2. characterized by or causing misery

3. despicable; base

4. poor, inferior, or paltry

5. (prenominal) (intensifier qualifying something undesirable)

   a wretched nuisance

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Synonym Usage

Wretched, miserable, sorry refer to that which is unhappy, afflicted, or distressed. Wretched refers to a condition of extreme affliction or distress, especially as outwardly apparent: wretched hovels. Miserable refers more to the inward feeling of unhappiness or distress: a miserable life. Sorry applies to distressed, often poverty-stricken outward circumstances; but it has connotations of unworthiness, incongruousness, or the like, so that the beholder feels more contempt than pity: in a sorry plight.

Other Word Forms

• wretchedness
  noun
• unwretched
  adjective
• wretchedly
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of wretched

First recorded in 1150–1200, wretched is from the Middle English word wrecchede. See wretch, -ed ³

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Explanation

The fairy tale Cinderella gives us many examples of uses for the word wretched. Poor Cinderella had a wretched childhood, living in wretched conditions with a wretched stepmother. It would be enough to make anyone feel wretched, or absolutely terrible. Wretched is an all-around unhappy word. If you're very ill, heartbroken, or riddled with guilt, you may feel wretched. This word is also used to describe awful living conditions. If your cabin at sleep-away camp is freezing cold and rat-infested, you could describe it as wretched. And if you truly don't like someone, you might call that person wretched — though maybe not to his or her face.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wretched wretcheder wretchedest

The story of the Statue of Liberty may seem tired, poor and the wretched refuse of unimaginative television.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

Some of Mr. Spencer’s family stories—how his mother was kept from holding his elder brother, John, who died a few hours after birth—are wretched and empathetically told.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

In that case, you will likely find yourself traveling to or from the concourse on a wretched holdover of midcentury transportation design: the people mover.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

Hopefully the generation of Gen Z musicians depicted in the film still lust over the chance to try, even as a wretched economy makes road-dogging harder today while digital fame beckons instead.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

“He’s doing an ad for keeping your wretched school open!” fumed Mr. Huxley.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Yes," sighed Lady Jean; "but Moira would be wretcheder because she would always be thinking of Reggy.

From Stories That End Well An Adventure in Altruria——Through the Terrors of the Law——The Real Thing——The Old Partisan——Max—Or His Picture——The Stout Miss Hopkins' Bicycle——The Spellbinder——The Object of the Federation——The Little Lonely Girl——The Hero of Company G——A Miracle Play by Octave Thanet

No roads were wretcheder than theirs; nobody cared less than they.

From The Henchman by Mark Lee Luther

I don't believe there was a wretcheder soul in that big city of wretchedness than me.

From The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Ah the poor Lover!—In the changing Hands Of Day and Night no wretcheder than He!

From Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Salámán and Absál Together With A Life Of Edward Fitzgerald And An Essay On Persian Poetry By Ralph Waldo Emerson by Edward FitzGerald

It was the second circle into which they now came—a sphere narrower than the first, and by so much more the wretcheder.

From Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 by Dante Alighieri

In the wretchedest slum quarter of Partinico. a pinched little town near Palermo, a man lay starving last week.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week, on the 19th anniversary of that historic Dempsey-Carpentier battle, Jersey City was the scene of another heavyweight prize fight that will probably go down in history as the wretchedest of the post-Dempsey era.

From Time Magazine Archive

Andrew Windybank had lived the wretchedest month of his life.

From Sea-Dogs All! A Tale of Forest and Sea by Tom Bevan

Then she half pushed and half smacked me uphill again, and when I got home I was the wettest, coldest, sorest, wretchedest bear-cub in the Rocky Mountains.

From Bear Brownie The Life of a Bear by H. P. Robinson

Happy! if happiness be indeed what we men are sent into this world to seek for, those hitherto thought the noblest among us were the pitifullest and wretchedest.

From Froude's Essays in Literature and History With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc by Hilaire Belloc

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