Word.ws English Dictionary

pathetical

UK/pəˈθɛtɪkl̩/

pathetical adjective: arousing sympathy; pathetic.

Adjective

pathetical (comparative more pathetical, superlative most pathetical)

  1. (archaic) Arousing sympathy; pathetic.
  2. Arising from strong emotion; passionate.
    • Not Hermes Prolocutor to the Gods,
      Could vſe perſwaſions more pathetical.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • Theseus at the first sight of Helen was so besotted, that he esteemed himself the happiest man in the world if he might enjoy her, and to that purpose kneeled down, and made his pathetical prayers unto the gods.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III...

Forms of pathetical

comparativemore pathetical
superlativemost pathetical

Origin of pathetical

From Late Latin patheticus + -al.

Questions about pathetical

What does pathetical mean?
Pathetical means arousing sympathy; pathetic.
What part of speech is pathetical?
Pathetical is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pathetical?
Pathetical is pronounced /pəˈθɛtɪkl̩/ (UK).

Words near pathetical in the dictionary

  1. pathetic
  2. pathetic fallacies
  3. pathetic fallacy
  4. pathetic nerve
  5. pathetic nerves
  6. pathetical
  7. pathetically
  8. patheticalness
  9. patheticism
  10. patheticisms
  11. pathetick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pathetical (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.

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