Sorrow and grief are for definite cause; sadness and melancholy may arise from a vague sense of want or loss, from a low state of health, or other ill-defined cause; sadness may be momentary; melancholy is more enduring, and may become chronic.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

grief There are five stages of grief. Stage one: denial.
sorrow To my sorrow, my father cannot attend the meeting.
unhappiness This created a lot of unhappiness in Yanni's life.
pathos It feels like they went off like that for pathos.
melancholia Schumann was diagnosed with psychotic melancholia.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
sadness		rising
grief		rising
sorrow		rising
unhappiness		rising
despondency		steady
pathos		steady

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

By length

3 letters: woe¹
5 letters: blues¹, grief¹, gloom¹, dolor
6 letters: misery³, sorrow², pathos², dolour
7 letters: anguish²
8 letters: distress², gloaming², glooming
9 letters: heartache², dejection, soberness
10 letters: depression³, bitterness³, misfortune³, melancholy⁴, desolation⁴, gloominess, infelicity
11 letters: unhappiness⁴, melancholia, despondency⁴, dolefulness, forlornness
12 letters: wretchedness, mournfulness
13 letters: sorrowfulness
14 letters: lugubriousness

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (misery³ = 3 syllables).

In other languages

Français: tristesse
Italiano: tristezza
Español: tristeza
Deutsch: Traurigkeit
Català: tristesa