pathos

noun

pa·​thos ˈpā-ˌthäs 

-ˌthȯs, 

-ˌthōs 

also ˈpa-

1

: an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion

2

: an emotion of sympathetic pity

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Pathos Entered English in the 1500s

The Greek word páthos means "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition,” and comes from Greek path-, meaning “experience, undergo, suffer.” In English, pathos usually refers to the element in an experience or in an artistic work that makes us feel compassion, pity, or sympathy. The word is a member of a big family: empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings. Pathetic (in its gentlest uses) describes things that move us to pity. Though pathology is not literally "the study of suffering," it is "the study of diseases." Other relatives of pathos include sympathy, apathy, and antipathy.

Examples of pathos in a Sentence

There is a pathos to the deflated certainties that left the Washington lawyer Leonard Garment weeping, inconsolable, outside the Senate chamber as the debate was ended. —Garry Wills, New York Times Book Review, 10 Sept. 1989

Many schools at the end of the Depression were poor, but the threadbare nature of Christchurch was almost Dickensian in its pathos. —William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, (1953) 1982

The struggle back to solvency was arduous, and the stubborn determination and reserves of strength that it called forth from him in his mid-forties made him all at once a figure of considerable pathos and heroism in my eyes, a cross of a kind between Captain Ahab and Willy Loman. —Philip Roth, Reading Myself and Others, (1961) 1975

Our knowledge of his tragic end adds an element of pathos to the story of his early success.

Recent Examples on the Web

Welles commits himself so deeply to Shakespeare’s most ingenious comic creation that the film has often been seen as a kind of self-portrait, filled in equal measure with delightful ribaldry and heartbreaking pathos. —Vince Aletti, New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2025

Basketballs filled with pathos plants hang from the ceiling. —Kansas City Star, 5 Dec. 2025

Ambling along with a curious little cadence all its own, The Baltimorons catches you off guard with both its humor and its pathos. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025

Allen delivers one of the all-time great vocal performances, effortlessly shifting from big laughs to extreme pathos. —Richard Edwards, Space.com, 29 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek páthos "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition," noun derivative of a verbal base path- "experience, undergo, suffer" (present páschō, páschein, aorist épathon), going back to *p^(h)nt^h-, zero ablaut grade of a base seen also in pénthos "grief, sorrow," of uncertain origin

Note: The Greek verb has been compared with Lithuanian kentù, kę͂sti "to undergo, suffer" (assuming that t for d is secondary) and Old Irish césaid "(s/he) suffers, endures" (< *k^wendh-s-?), though this would require Indo-European *k^wendh-, with a normally unacceptable combination of voiceless stop and voiced aspirated stop in a single root. Alternatively, Greek path-, penth- has been explained as an idiosyncratic semantic development of Indo-European *bhendh- "bind" ("be bound" > "suffer"?) (see bind entry 1).

First Known Use

1591, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

pathos

noun

pa·​thos ˈpā-ˌthäs  -ˌthȯs 

: an element in life or in artistic representation of it that moves one to pity