sorrow
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Something that causes great unhappiness.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sahrohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɑɹoʊ
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
Something that causes great unhappiness
countableusually in plural
An instance or cause of unhappiness.
uncountable
Unhappiness, woe
verb
intransitive
To feel or express grief.
transitive
To feel grief over; to mourn, regret.
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: Something that causes great unhappiness
Used this way, sorrow is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sorrow
- “He tried to express his sorrow at her loss.”noun
- “He drank to drown his sorrows.”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.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss.
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.