sorrow

Syllables: sor·rowUK/ˈsɒɹəʊ//ˈsɑɹoʊ/

sorrow noun: unhappiness, woe.

Noun

sorrow (countable and uncountable, plural sorrows)

(uncountable) unhappiness, woe
- But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness
  Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.August 28, 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 47
Synonyms:

dejection, blueness, tristesse, mirthless, blues, crestfallenness, depression, despondency, distress, dolefulness
(countable) (usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness.
- Parting is such sweet sorrow.
- She had nursed all the children, including Sandro, to whom she was devoted, and my husband was just as fond of her. His going away to America was a great sorrow to her, and she always kept the sacred light burning on a little altar for Sandro all the time of his long absence.1903, Maud Salvini, “Salvini as I Know Him”, in The Theatre, number 3, page 312
Synonyms:

misfortune, woe, adversity, apocalypse, calamity, catastrophe, disaster, misery, qualm, affliction

Verb

sorrow (third-person singular simple present sorrows, present participle sorrowing, simple past and past participle sorrowed)

(intransitive) To feel or express grief.
- ‘Sorrow not, sir,’ says he, ‘like those without hope.’1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 424
- When, as sometimes happens, a lad dies from the effect of the operation, he is buried secretly in the forest, and his sorrowing mother is told that the monster has a pig's stomach as well as a human stomach, and that unfortunately her son slipped into the wrong stomach.1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 11, page 241
Synonyms:

grieve, mourn, aggrieve, besorrow, condole, darken, engrieve, erme, gloom, grieven
(transitive) To feel grief over; to mourn, regret.
- It is impossible to make a man naturally blind, to conceive that he seeth not; impossible to make him desire to see, and sorrow his defect.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

bewail, grieve, afterthink, becry, begrieve, bemoan, bemourn, beweep, condole, deplore

Proper noun capitalized: Sorrow

Sorrow (plural Sorrows)

A surname.

sorrow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sorrow in Hindi

unhappiness: दुःख duḥkh, उदासी udāsī, शोक śok, ग़म ġam, अफ़सोस afsos

sorrow in Tamil

unhappiness: சோகம் cōkam, துக்கம் tukkam, துயரம் tuyaram

sorrow in Marathi

sorrow, grief, affliction: खेद khed

sorrow in Urdu

unhappiness: غم ġam, افسوس afsos, دکھ dukh, سوگ sug, اداسی udāsī

More languagesFewer languages

sorrow in Bengali: দুঃখ dukkho, দেরেগ dereg, গোসা gōśa, নারাজী narazī
sorrow in Telugu: దిగులు digulu, బాధ bādha, శోకించు śōkiñcu
sorrow in Malayalam: ക്ലേശം klēśaṁ, അല്ലൽ allal, ശോകം śōkaṁ, നീറുക nīṟuka
sorrow in Kannada: ಶೋಕ śōka, ದುಃಖ duḥkha
sorrow in Punjabi: ਦੁੱਖ dukh, ਦੁਖ dukh
sorrow in Odia: ଦୁଃଖ duḥkha, ଅସୁଖ asukha
sorrow in Sanskrit: अप्रसन्नता aprasannatā, दुःख duḥkha
sorrow in Sinhala: රුක ruka
sorrow in Nepali: दुःख duḥkha
sorrow in Pashto: ارمان armā́n
sorrow in Arabic: حُزْن ḥuzn
sorrow in Malay: kesedihan
sorrow in Indonesian: kesedihan
sorrow in Persian: غم ġam, اندوه anduh, زاری zâri, حزن hozn
sorrow in Thai: ความทุกข์ kwaam-túk, ความเศร้า kwaam sâo, ทุกข์ túk
sorrow in Vietnamese: nỗi buồn, sự buồn
sorrow in Myanmar: ပရိဒေဝ pa.ri.dewa., အဆွေး a.hcwe:, အပူ a.pu

Examples of sorrow in a sentence

Beijing’s bureaucrats may claim they are preventing fires, but what they are really igniting is resentment, sorrow, and resistance.2025 December 16, Lopsang Gurung (pseudonym), “Golog Prefecture, Qinghai Province: Beijing’s Bonfire of Tibetan Prayer Flags”, in Bitter...
Vaublanc, in San Domingo so sympathetic to the sorrows of labour in France, had to fly from Paris in August, 1792, to escape the wrath of the French workers.1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 14:

All 40 example sentences with sorrow

Synonyms of sorrow

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sorrow

Forms of sorrow

Noun
plural	sorrows
alternative form (obsolete)	sorrowe
Verb
third-person singular present	sorrows
present participle	sorrowing
past participle	sorrowed
past	sorrowed
Proper noun
plural	Sorrows

Plural of sorrow: sorrows

Origin of sorrow

From Middle English sorwe, sorow, sorewe, from Old English sorg, sorh (“care, anxiety, sorrow, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sorgu, from Proto-Germanic *surgō (compare West Frisian soarch, Dutch zorg, German Sorge, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sorg), from Proto-Indo-European *swergʰ- (“watch over, worry; be ill, suffer”) (compare Old Irish serg (“sickness”), Tocharian B sark (“sickness”), Lithuanian sirgti (“be sick”), Sanskrit सूर्क्षति (sū́rkṣati, “worry”). Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not historically related to sorry and sore.

Probably a calque of German Sorge (“sorrow”).

Phrases with sorrow

trees of sorrow

Words that rhyme with sorrow

Questions about sorrow

What does sorrow mean?: Sorrow means unhappiness, woe.
What is sorrow in Hindi?: Sorrow in Hindi is दुःख (duḥkh), उदासी (udāsī), शोक (śok). See Sorrow meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sorrow in a sentence?: Beijing’s bureaucrats may claim they are preventing fires, but what they are really igniting is resentment, sorrow, and resistance.
What part of speech is sorrow?: Sorrow can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sorrow?: Sorrow is pronounced /ˈsɒɹəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of sorrow?: The plural of sorrow is sorrows.

Words near sorrow in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sorrow.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sorrow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sorrow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.