pathetic
/pəˈθɛtɪk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.11 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart."
- "We have now arrived at one of the most pathetic and glorious events in the history of Israel, one which sanctifies the Lamanite race with the powers of martyrdom, and, by the blood of the victims, washes its garments white from many a former sin."
- "She held his hand in one of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture."
- "There was no hospital, or any accommodation for the sick men. Each mate nursed his fellow, and some strikingly pathetic touches of devotion were shown here and there amongst them."
- "[H]e was led away to a private sanitarium for mental disease, while in the newspapers appeared pathetic accounts of his mental breakdown and of the saintliness of his character."
- "You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic."
Etymology
From Middle French pathétique, from Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned”), from παθητός (pathētós, “one who has suffered, subject to suffering”), from πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer”). By surface analysis, path- + -etic.
Usage
Inflected Forms
more pathetic (comparative)
most pathetic (superlative)
pathetick (alternative, archaic)
patheticke (alternative, obsolete)
pathetique (alternative, obsolete)