| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | pathetic, woebegone |
| Synonyms: | beefing, bellyaching, cantankerous, crabby, cranky*, disconsolate, doleful, grief-stricken, grievous, grousing, grumpy*, heartrending, lamenting, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, out of sorts, pathetic, piteous, pitiful, rueful, sad, saddening, sorrowful, wailing, wistful, woeful |
| Notes: | a plaintiff is the party who brings an action in a court of law, while plaintive means expressive of sorrow or melancholy |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, happy |
| Main Entry: | doleful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | depressing |
| Synonyms: | afflicted, cast down, cheerless, crestfallen, dejected, depressed, dirgeful, dismal, dispirited, distressing, dolent, dolorous, down, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, dreary, forlorn, funereal, gloomy, grieving, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, piteous, pitiful, plaintive, rueful, sad, somber, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, elated, glad, gleeful, happy, joyful |
| Main Entry: | dolorous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | miserable, anguished |
| Synonyms: | afflicted, afflictive, calamitous, deplorable, dire, distressing, doleful, dolent, dolesome, dolorific, grievous, harrowing, heart-rending, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, ruthful, sad, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched |
| Antonyms: | cheery, happy, hopeful |
| Main Entry: | irritable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | bad-tempered, crabby |
| Synonyms: | annoyed, bearish, brooding, cantankerous, carping, choleric, complaining, contentious, crabbed, cross, crotchety, disputatious, dissatisfied, dyspeptic, easily offended, exasperated, fiery, fractious, fretful, fretting, gloomy, grouchy, grumbling, hasty, hot, huffy, hypercritical, ill-humored, irascible, moody, morose, out of humor, oversensitive, peevish, petulant, plaintive, prickly, querulous, quick-tempered, resentful, sensitive, snappy, snarling, surly, tense, testy, touchy |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, happy, nice |
| Main Entry: | lamentable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | upsetting, miserable |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, awful, bad, calamitous, deplorable, dire, dirty, distressing, doleful, dolorous, god-awful, grievous, grim, heartbreaking, hurting, lousy, low, lugubrious, meager, mean, melancholy, mournful, pitiful, plaintive, poor, regretful, rotten, rueful, sad, sorrowful, stinking, tragic, unfavorable, unfortunate, unsatisfactory, woeful, wretched |
| Antonyms: | cheering, fortunate, good, lucky, satisfactory |
| Main Entry: | pathetic |
| 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: | piteous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | miserable, pathetic |
| Synonyms: | beseeching, commiserable, deplorable, distressing, doleful, dolorous, entreating, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, imploring, lamentable, melancholy, mournful, moving, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, rueful, ruined, sad, sorrowful, supplicating, woeful, 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: | cheerful, happy |
| Main Entry: | querulous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | grouchy, hard to please |
| Synonyms: | bearish, bemoaning, cantankerous, captious, carping, censorious, complaining, critical, cross, crying, deploring, discontented, dissatisfied, edgy, fault-finding, fretful, grousing, grumbling, grumbly, huffy irascible, irritable, lamenting, out of sorts peevish, petulant, plaintive, scrappy, snappy, sour, testy, thin-skinned touchy, uptight, wailing, waspish, waspy, whimpering, whining, whiny |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, easy-going, happy |
| Main Entry: | sorrowful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very upset; grieving |
| Synonyms: | affecting, afflicted, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, distressing, doleful, dolent, full of sorrow, grievous, heartbroken, heartrending, heavy-hearted, hurting, in mourning, in pain, in sorrow, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, miserable, mournful, painful, piteous, plaintive, rueful, ruthful, sad, sick at heart, singing the blues, sorry, tear-jerking, tearful, unhappy, woebegone, woeful, wretched |
| Antonyms: | delighted, happy, joyful |