ENGLISH
REFERENCE

sorrowful

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˈsɑɹoʊfəɫ// UK //sˈɒɹəʊfəl// sor·row·ful

adj. feeling or showing deep sadness. You use this to describe someone who is very upset or a situation that is very sad.

adj. feeling or expressing deep sadness, grief, or regret. Often used to describe facial expressions, music, or the atmosphere of a scene.


SIMPLE

The children wore sorrowful faces at the funeral.

CONTEXTUAL

The choir sang a sorrowful song to honor the memory of the fallen soldiers.

COMPLEX

The novel's protagonist is a sorrowful figure, haunted by a series of personal tragedies that have left him emotionally isolated from the rest of the world.

Antonyms
Origin

From Middle English sorweful, from Old English sorhful, sorgful (“full of care; anxious; sorrowful”), from Proto-Germanic *surgafullaz (“full of care; anxious”), equivalent to sorrow + -ful. Cognate with Old High German sorgfol (“careful; anxious”), Norwegian sorgfull (“sorrowful”), Icelandic sorgfullur (“lamentable”).

© 2026 English Reference