pathetic
/pəˈθɛtɪk/
pathetic adjective: arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.
Adjective
pathetic (comparative more pathetic, superlative most pathetic)
- Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.
- The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.
- We have now arrived at one of the most pathetic and glorious events in the history of Israel, one which sanctifies the Lamanite race with the powers of martyrdom, and, by the blood of the victims, washes its garments white from many a former sin.1883, George Reynolds, “History of the Book of Mormon: Contents of the Records, II,”, in Contributor
- Synonyms:
- pathetisad, pitiable, pitiful, wretched, compassionate, piteous, pitisome, sad, poor, rueful
- Arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.
- You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.
- You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.
- Synonyms:
- disgraceful, shameful, dishonorable, abject, filthy, base, beggarly, blameworthy, carrion, cheap
- Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
- On a certain Good Friday, in what year we are not told, an especially moving and pathetic sermon was preached in the Cathedral by Father John Texeda, upon the sufferings of our Lord.1894, A. M. Clarke, The Life of Saint Francis Borgia, page 95
- Synonyms:
- mad, seething, agitated, angry, annoyed, apoplectic, bad-tempered, berserk, big mad, blood-boiling
- Trochlear.
pathetic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
pathetic in Hindi
- arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion
- दयनीय daynīya
pathetic in Tamil
- பரிதாபமிக்க
pathetic in Urdu
- درد انگیز, دلسوز
pathetic in Bengali
- করুণ, মর্মস্পর্শী, করুণা জাগিয়ে তোলে, শোচনীয়, অত্যন্ত নিম্নমানের, অকিঞ্চিৎকর
More languagesFewer languages
- pathetic in Malayalam
- ശോചനീയമായ, ദയനീയമായ, കരുണാത്മകമായ, കഷ്ടമായ
- pathetic in Kannada
- ಕನಿಕರ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸುವ, ಎದೆಕರಗಿಸುವ, ಸೋತುಹೋದ, ಕರುಣಾಜನಕ
- pathetic in Indonesian
- payah
- pathetic in Persian
- رقتانگیز reqqat-angiz
- pathetic in Thai
- น่าสงสาร nâa-sǒng-sǎan, น่าสมเพช nâa-sǒm-pêet
Examples of pathetic in a sentence
- She held his hand in one of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- Each mate nursed his fellow, and some strikingly pathetic touches of devotion were shown here and there amongst them.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 150:
- [H]e was led away to a private sanitarium for mental disease, while in the newspapers appeared pathetic accounts of his mental breakdown and of the saintliness of his character.1908 February 19, Jack London, “The Bishop”, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page...
- Well you'd better think of something because middle-aged tramps aren't cute, they're pathetic.2005, In Her Shoes:
Synonyms of pathetic
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of pathetic
| comparative | more pathetic |
|---|---|
| superlative | most pathetic |
| alternative form (archaic) | pathetick |
| alternative form (obsolete) | patheticke |
| alternative form (obsolete) | pathetique |
Origin of pathetic
From Middle French pathétique, from Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned”), from παθητός (pathētós, “one who has suffered, subject to suffering”), from πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer”). By surface analysis, path- + -etic.
Words formed from pathetic
Phrases with pathetic
Words that rhyme with pathetic
- sympathetic
- hermetic
- kinetic
- athletic
- genetic
- magnetic
- energetic
- syndetic
- aesthetic
- diabetic
- diaeretic
- frenetic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mimetic
- peripatetic
- planetic
- poetic
- tonetic
- abietic
- anesthetic
- anoetic
- anuretic
- apathetic
- ascetic
- auxetic
- cybernetic
- dietetic
- epithetic
- Helvetic
- parasympathetic
- parenthetic
- phyletic
- Sidetic
- splenetic
- synaeretic
- synizetic
- tabetic
- threnetic
- alexipyretic
- algetic
- alphabetic
- alphametic
- amuletic
- analgetic
- anchoretic
- anoretic
- aphetic
- aporetic
- archegetic
- asyndetic
- auletic
- autonoetic
- balletic
- Baphometic
- cardioparasympathetic
- cardiosympathetic
- cometic
- conspiracy-theoretic
- cynegetic
- diagenetic
- diakinetic
Questions about pathetic
- What does pathetic mean?
- Pathetic means arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.
- What is pathetic in Hindi?
- Pathetic in Hindi is दयनीय (daynīya). See Pathetic meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use pathetic in a sentence?
- She held his hand in one of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture.
- What part of speech is pathetic?
- Pathetic is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce pathetic?
- Pathetic is pronounced /pəˈθɛtɪk/.
Words near pathetic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pathetic (page history and authors); pathetic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pathetic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pathetic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pathetic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pathetic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pathetic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pathetic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pathetic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.