as in pitiful
deserving of one's pity
a piteous beggar huddled in the doorway of an abandoned building
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Recent Examples of piteous
An old woman and an old man, innocent as lambs, clambering over rubble with their piteous backpacks and bundles.
—
David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
The word integral seemed to me particularly poignant, piteous.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
Later, Ivy interrogates Felix about having strayed dangerously from the straight-and-narrow, a confrontation that is agonizing to watch, as Mr. Torres’s performance gains in both piteous despair and angry ferocity.
—Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022
Because the Grammys telecast draws generations of viewers, and because Grammy voters are drawn from a wide pool that skews older, what emerges on the show, and in the awards themselves, is a kind of piteous compromise that holds real innovation at bay.
—New York Times, 4 Apr. 2022
David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
The word integral seemed to me particularly poignant, piteous.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
Later, Ivy interrogates Felix about having strayed dangerously from the straight-and-narrow, a confrontation that is agonizing to watch, as Mr. Torres’s performance gains in both piteous despair and angry ferocity.
—Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022
Because the Grammys telecast draws generations of viewers, and because Grammy voters are drawn from a wide pool that skews older, what emerges on the show, and in the awards themselves, is a kind of piteous compromise that holds real innovation at bay.
—New York Times, 4 Apr. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piteous
Adjective
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Yet Plemons imbues him with despair, finding a pitiful fragility in his aggression.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
31 Oct. 2025
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Jerry Jeudy has struggled, and the depth behind Jeudy has been pitiful.—
Matthew Schmidt,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Enter Claude Whelan, played by James Callis, a fine actor with a face that can contort itself into about a dozen different versions of misery and pathetic dismay.—
Brian Grubb,
Vulture,
29 Oct. 2025
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Ratcheting up the pressure on the pathetic Putin will be the only way this war ends.—
Chicago Tribune,
Twin Cities,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The Ministry of Environment blamed this year’s surge on a poor acorn harvest – which drove a similar spate of attacks in 2023.—
Jessie Yeung,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
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Rather, the slow start (by Ovechkin’s standards) to this season seemed due more to poor puck luck.—
Sean Gentille,
New York Times,
6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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When the din inside Rams Park had finally subsided, Arne Slot attempted to put a positive spin on a wretched night for Liverpool.—
James Pearce,
New York Times,
1 Oct. 2025
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Yes, Baltimore’s defense is wretched, so don’t count on this being a cure-all, exactly.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Zoning is not meant to be some sort of punishing thing meant to make a city miserable.—
Kim Velsey,
Curbed,
5 Nov. 2025
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But George appeared in just 41 games due to injury, while Embiid played in just 19 games, and the Sixers sagged to a miserable 24-58 finish.—
Robert Marvi,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Piteous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piteous. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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