sadness
noun
Simple meaning
The state or emotion of being sad.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sadnuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsædnəs
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
uncountable
The state or emotion of being sad.
“She tired of his perpetual sadness.”
countable
An event in one's life that causes sadness.
Emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state or emotion of being sad.
Used this way, sadness is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
“She tired of his perpetual sadness.”
- 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 sadness
- “She tired of his perpetual sadness.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.