Word.ws English Dictionary

pitifull

pitifull is the obsolete form of pitiful.

Meaning of pitiful

Adjective

pitiful (comparative pitifuller, superlative pitifullest)

  1. So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
    • Scotland has a pitiful climate.
  2. Eliciting contempt.
  3. Of an amount or number: very small.
    • A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.
    Synonyms:
    few, meager, paltry, scant, scanty, thin
  4. (archaic) 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...

See all 5 meanings of pitiful

Forms of pitifull

comparativemore pitifull
superlativemost pitifull

Questions about pitifull

What is pitifull the obsolete form of?
Pitifull is the obsolete form of pitiful.

Words near pitifull in the dictionary

  1. pitiers
  2. pities
  3. pitiest
  4. pitieth
  5. pitiful
  6. pitifull
  7. pitifuller
  8. pitifullest
  9. pitifully
  10. pitifulness
  11. pitifulnesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pitifull (page history and authors); pitiful (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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Cite this entry: “pitifull.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pitifull. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.