n. 1
unhappiness, woe
The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.
n. 2
(usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
v. 1
To feel or express grief.
v. 2
To feel grief over; to mourn, regret.

Related words

Word family: sorrowful sorrowfully sorrowfulness sorrow-ridden sorrowsome sorrower

Forms

Plural: sorrows → griefs, sadnesses, unhappinesses, miseries…
Past participle: sorrowed
e.g. sorrowed → grieved, mourned, lamented, bewailed…

Choose the right word

Sorrow, Grief, Sadness or Melancholy?

Grief is more acute and less enduring than sorrow. 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.
misery Tom blamed all his misery on planned obsolescence.
sadness There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes.
unhappiness This created a lot of unhappiness in Yanni's life.
misfortune What greater misfortune is there than to go blind?
affliction That which is a feast to one is an affliction to another.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
sorrow		rising
grief		rising
misery		rising
sadness		rising
unhappiness		rising
misfortune		steady

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

By length

3 letters: woe¹
4 letters: pain¹, pine¹, keen¹, sigh¹, weep¹, moan¹, wail¹
5 letters: wrong¹, trial², grief¹, bleed¹, agony³, mourn¹, gloom¹, becry
6 letters: burden², misery³, repent², grieve¹, lament², bemoan², sadden², bewail, repine
7 letters: trouble², concern², sadness², remorse², anguish², sighing², oppress², deplore², afflict², agonize³, agonise, elegize, elegise
8 letters: distress², mourning², hardship², calamity⁴, vexation, aggrieve²
9 letters: adversity⁴, heartache², grievance², penitence, dejection, deprecate³
10 letters: depression³, compassion³, bitterness³, melancholy⁴, misfortune³, visitation⁴, affliction³, contrition³
11 letters: unhappiness⁴, lamentation, despondency⁴, aggrievance
12 letters: wretchedness

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (trial² = 2 syllables).