| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sad, affecting |
| Synonyms: | commiserable, deplorable, distressing, feeble, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, miserable, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, puny, rueful, sorry*, tender, touching, useless, woeful, worthless, wretched |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, happy, useful, worthwhile |
| Main Entry: | emotional |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | demonstrative about feelings |
| Synonyms: | affecting, ardent, disturbed, ecstatic, emotive, enthusiastic, excitable, exciting, falling apart, fanatical, feeling, fervent, fervid, fickle, fiery, heartwarming, heated, histrionic, hot-blooded, hysterical, impassioned, impetuous, impulsive, irrational, moving, nervous, overwrought, passionate, pathetic, poignant, responsive, roused, sensitive, sentient, sentimental, spontaneous, stirred, stirring, susceptible, tear-jerking, temperamental, tender, thrilling, touching, warm, zealous |
| Notes: | emotional means 'affected by an emotion' while emotive means 'drawing out or evoking emotion' |
| Antonyms: | physical |
| Main Entry: | expressive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | telling, revealing |
| Synonyms: | alive, allusive, articulate, artistic, brilliant, colorful, demonstrative, dramatic, eloquent, emphatic, energetic, forcible, graphic, indicative, ingenious, lively, masterly, meaningful, mobile, moving, passionate, pathetic, pictorial, picturesque, poignant, pointed, pregnant, representative, responsive, revelatory, showy, significant, silver-tongued, spirited, stimulating, stirring, striking, strong, suggestive, sympathetic, tender, thoughtful, touching, understanding, vivid, warm |
| Antonyms: | expressionless, inexpressive, passive, undemonstrative |
| Main Entry: | forlorn |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hopeless, inconsolable |
| Synonyms: | abandoned, alone, bereft, blue*, cheerless, comfortless, cynical, defenseless, depressed, deserted, desolate, despairing, desperate, despondent, destitute, destroyed, disconsolate, down and out, dragging, forgotten, forsaken, friendless, fruitless, futile, godforsaken, helpless, homeless, in the dumps, lonely, lonesome, lost, miserable, oppressed, pathetic, pessimistic, pitiable, pitiful, solitary, tragic, unhappy, vain, weighed down, woebegone, wretched |
| Notes: | lonely adds to solitary a suggestion of longing for companionship, while lonesome heightens the suggestion of sadness; forlorn and desolate are even more isolated and sad |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, comforted, consolable, happy, hopeful, joyful, pleased |
| Main Entry: | grievous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | severe, painful; serious |
| Synonyms: | afflicting, agonizing, appalling, atrocious, calamitous, damaging, deplorable, dire, dismal, disquieting, distressing, disturbing, dreadful, egregious, flagrant, glaring, grave, harmful, heart-rending, heavy*, heinous, hurtful, injurious, intolerable, lamentable, monstrous, mournful, offensive, onerous, oppressive, outrageous, pathetic, pitiful, sad, shameful, sharp, shocking, sorrowful, taxing, tough, tragic, troublesome, unbearable, upsetting, villainous, weighty, wounding |
| Antonyms: | good, harmless, pleasant |
| Main Entry: | measly |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | skimpy |
| Synonyms: | beggarly, contemptible, insignificant, meager, mean, miserable, miserly, niggling, paltry, pathetic, petty, picayune, piddling, pitiful, poor, puny, scanty, stingy, trifling, trivial, ungenerous, unimportant, valueless, worthless |
| Antonyms: | abundant, plenty, proficient, satisfactory, sufficient |
| Main Entry: | miserable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unhappy, depressed |
| Synonyms: | afflicted, agonized, ailing, anguished, brokenhearted, crestfallen, dejected, desolate, despairing, despondent, destroyed, disconsolate, discontented, distressed, doleful, dolorous, down, down in the mouth, downcast, forlorn, gloomy, heartbroken, hopeless, hurt, hurting, ill, in pain, injured, melancholy, mournful, on a downer, pained, pathetic, pitiable, racked, rueful, ruthful, sad, sick, sickly, sorrowful, strained, suffering, tormented, tortured, tragic, troubled, woebegone, wounded, wretched |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, elated, happy, joyful, merry |
| Main Entry: | miserable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | destitute, shabby |
| Synonyms: | abject, bad, contemptible, deplorable, despicable, detestable, disgraceful, godforsaken, impoverished, indigent, inferior, lamentable, low, meager, mean, needy, paltry, pathetic, penniless, piteous, pitiable, poor, poverty-stricken, sad, scanty, scurvy, shameful, sordid, sorry, squalid, tragic, vile, worthless, wretched |
| Antonyms: | generous, rich, wealthy |
| Main Entry: | pitiful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | in bad shape; poor |
| Synonyms: | abject, affecting, afflicted, arousing, base, beggarly, cheap, cheerless, comfortless, commiserative, compassionate, contemptible, deplorable, despicable, dismal, distressed, distressing, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, insignificant, joyless, lamentable, low, mean, miserable, mournful, moving, paltry, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, sad, scurvy, shabby, sorrowful, sorry, stirring, suffering, tearful, touching, vile, woeful, worthless, wretched |
| Notes: | piteous is generally not used when speaking of people, pitiable means 'able to be pitied,' and pitiful most often means 'insignificant; below contempt' |
| Antonyms: | excellent, happy, superb, superior, wonderful, worthwhile |