pitiful
/ˈpɪt.ɪ.fl̩/
pitiful adjective: so appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
Adjective
pitiful (comparative pitifuller, superlative pitifullest)
- So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
- Scotland has a pitiful climate.
- Eliciting contempt.
- Of an amount or number: very small.
- A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.
- Feeling pity; merciful.
- Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas...
- Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
Adverb
pitiful (comparative more pitiful, superlative most pitiful)
- In a pitiful manner; pitifully; piteously; pathetically.
- ‘She followed ’em, cryin’ pitiful, to the old boat on the Wall[.]’1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, London: Penguin Books, published 1994, page 194
pitiful meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
pitiful in Hindi
- so appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it
- दयनीय daynīya
pitiful in Marathi
- दयनीय
pitiful in Urdu
- درد مند, درد ناک
pitiful in Bengali
- করুণ, করুণাজনক
More languagesFewer languages
- pitiful in Malayalam
- അനുതാപമുള്ള, അനുകമ്പയുള്ള, ദുഃഖകരമായ
- pitiful in Kannada
- ಕರುಣೆ ತೋರಿಸುವ, ಕರುಣಾಜನಕ, ಅನುಕಂಪವುಳ್ಳ
- pitiful in Punjabi
- ਤਰਸਯੋਗ
- pitiful in Gujarati
- દયનીય
- pitiful in Odia
- କରୁଣାଜନକ
- pitiful in Sanskrit
- दयालु dayālu
- pitiful in Nepali
- दयनीय, करुणाजनक
Examples of pitiful in a sentence
- Reports on the pitiful state of many prisons have finally percolated through to the Home Office, which has promised to look into the situation.
- Most nurses found the helplessness of "the shell shocks" painful and "pitiful."
- On Sunday it would be even more drinking, plus the Times, and the pitiful "Jints" on TV.
Synonyms of pitiful
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of pitiful
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | pitifuller |
| superlative | pitifullest |
| alternative form (obsolete) | pitifull |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more pitiful |
| superlative | most pitiful |
Origin of pitiful
From Middle English pityful, piteful, piteeful. By surface analysis, pit(i) + -ful.
Words formed from pitiful
Questions about pitiful
- What does pitiful mean?
- Pitiful means so appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
- What is pitiful in Hindi?
- Pitiful in Hindi is दयनीय (daynīya). See Pitiful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pitiful?
- Pitiful can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce pitiful?
- Pitiful is pronounced /ˈpɪt.ɪ.fl̩/.
Words near pitiful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pitiful (page history and authors); pitiful (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pitiful (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pitiful (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pitiful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pitiful (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pitiful (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pitiful (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pitiful (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); दयालु (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); pitiful (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pitiful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pitiful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pitiful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.