Word.ws English Dictionary

sorriness

sorriness noun: the state or quality of being sorry; regret.

Noun

sorriness (uncountable)

  1. The state or quality of being sorry; regret.
  2. Worthlessness; wretchedness.
    • His friend, Mr. Smith, thought that "a sorry farmer on a sorry farm is a sorry sight." Bill hardly attained that level of sorriness.1967, Shields McIlwaine, The Southern Poor-white from Lubberland to Tobacco Road

Origin of sorriness

From Middle English sorinesse, from Old English sāriġnes, from Proto-West Germanic *sairaganassī, *sairīganassī; equivalent to sorry + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian searigens (“soreness, tenderness”).

Questions about sorriness

What does sorriness mean?
Sorriness means the state or quality of being sorry; regret.
What part of speech is sorriness?
Sorriness is a noun.

Words near sorriness in the dictionary

  1. sorried
  2. sorrier
  3. sorries
  4. sorriest
  5. sorrily
  6. sorriness
  7. sorrisome
  8. sorrow
  9. sorrow-ridden
  10. sorrowe
  11. sorrowed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sorriness (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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