EN

Synonyms for pathetic

42 synonyms
5 antonyms
3 meanings

adjective

Most common

disgraceful pitiful laughable pitiable hapless piteous silly

Synonyms by meaning

Adjective

1. Pitiful — arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy

pitiful, pitiable, miserable, wretched, contemptible, laughable, despicable, disgraceful, shameful, worthless, deplorable, woeful, vile, sorry, paltry, unfortunate, crummy, shoddy, shabby, trashy, cheesy, mean

2. Sad — arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos

piteous, poor, hapless, plaintive, mournful, rueful, affecting, snively, misfortunate, pitisome, ruthful, sad slang, sorry-ass vulgar slang, pathetisad informal rare

3. Mad — expressing or showing anger; passionate

mad, sore, seething

Other

silly, emotional, touching

Antonyms

mediocre, positive, tight

All antonyms of pathetic →

Definitions

adj. 1
Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.
The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.
adj. 2
Arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.
You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.
adj. 3
Expressing or showing anger; passionate.

Related words

Word family: pathetically patheticness pathos
Phrases: pathetic fallacy

Example sentences

disgraceful They abandoned us in the most disgraceful manner.
pitiful The pitiful tale fetched tears from the girl.
laughable From the sublime to the laughable is just one step.
pitiable Jason is no bad guy, but rather a pitiable loser.
hapless The black hole pulls the hapless star into its maw.
piteous He looked piteous, like a drowned mouse.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
pathetic		rising
disgraceful		steady
pitiful		rising
laughable		rising
pitiable		steady
hapless		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: sad¹, mad¹
4 letters: mean¹, poor¹, sore¹, vile¹
5 letters: sorry², silly²
6 letters: cheesy², shabby², trashy², shoddy², paltry², woeful², crummy², rueful²
7 letters: pitiful³, hapless², piteous, snively², ruthful
8 letters: touching², shameful², wretched², seething², mournful², pitiable⁴, pitisome
9 letters: emotional⁴, miserable⁴, affecting³, worthless², laughable³, plaintive²
10 letters: despicable⁴, deplorable⁴, pathetisad
11 letters: unfortunate⁴, disgraceful³
12 letters: contemptible⁴, misfortunate

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (sorry² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: pathétique
Italiano: patetico
Español: patético
Català: patètic