dolorous
/ˈdɒləɹəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.70 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Solemnly or ponderously sad.
Example Sentences
- "Through dolorous despaire, which she conceyved, Into the Sea her selfe did headlong throw, Thinking to have her griefe by death bereaved."
- ". . . Hell itself will pass away, And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day."
- "From this prison here of horror, whence I every hour tend nearer and nearer to destruction, I send you . . . the assurance of my dolorous and unhappy service."
- "She turned and waved a hand to him, she cried a word, but he didn't hear it, it was a lost word. A sable wraith she was in the parkland, fading away into the dolorous crypt of winter."
- "The dolorous effects of the second world war on train services, and its protracted legacies of over-age equipment and shortages of material for replacement, are too fresh in memory to require recapitulation here; […]."
- "As World War II came to a close, the gaunt and dolorous child was liberated at yet another death camp, Buchenwald."
Etymology
From Middle English dolorous, from Old French dolerous (modern French douloureux), from Late Latin dolōrōsus (“painful”), from Latin dolor. Doublet of dolorose.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Frequently Paired Words
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