pity
noun
Simple meaning
A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
piteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɪti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
“The blind are too often objects of pity.”
uncountable
A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
The humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it
countable
Something regrettable.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
Used this way, pity is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
“The blind are too often objects of pity.”
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use pity
- “The blind are too often objects of pity.”noun
- “It's a pity he couldn't do it.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A feeling of sorrow (often self-indulgent) over your own sufferings.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.