SADNESS Synonyms: 105 Similar and Opposite Words

sadness

noun

Definition of sadness

as in melancholy

a state or spell of low spirits she was filled with sadness at the thought of having to leave her family

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of sadness Beat shows how so many of the sounds that were prevalent in the mid-’90s contained a unique, end-of-the century sadness. — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 4 Oct. 2026 People can experience grief, sadness, relief, conflict or combinations of these emotions after any pregnancy outcome. — Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2026 Melumad turned to the harp, an instrument Alex’s mother played, to evoke warmth, nostalgia and sadness. — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 3 Oct. 2026 This divorce story is not about sadness, disappointment, personal limitations, or heartbreak. — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026 Change this to a charity advertisement, and you get bombarded with hyperbolic sadness, the old people’s tears, their loneliness. — Alicja Turczyk, The Dial, 29 Sep. 2026 Deeper than mere sadness, and more visceral than fear, significant discomfort is the ultimate motivator for immediate action. — New Atlas, 28 Sep. 2026 What readers are saying The comments express deep sadness and sympathy for the loss of Rip, a loyal Great Pyrenees dog, who died while trying to protect another animal. — Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2026 We are all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even our mother. — Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 23 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sadness

Noun

The question for me is whether or not Lloyd will also manage to capture the melancholy of a deceptively serious play, notwithstanding its reputation.

— Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2026
On the one hand, there’s a fascination with collective joy and the forms of vernacular invention that aspire to it; on the other, there’s an underlying melancholy that points to the inevitability of isolation, an epistemology of loneliness.

— Pablo Larios, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of melancholy

Noun

In April 2022, Wynonna and Ashley’s mother, Naomi Judd, died by suicide at 76 after a lifelong battle with depression.

— Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
The drug has been associated in recent years with high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, who said it was prescribed to him to treat depression.

— Violet Jira, Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of depression

Noun

Because so many of Gunn’s friends died in San Francisco, a city where Gunn had found happiness and freedom, then these elegies are also a monument to a time of communal sorrow and mourning.

— Colm Tóibín, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026
Another decision that those who are rejected face, at least if anger is mixed in with sorrow, is where to direct that anger.

— George Loewenstein, Vogue, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of sorrow

Noun

The ending’s weight comes from the huge scope of the Trask family’s grief, but even more, its emotional heft comes from how clearly this East of Eden sees Lee, the person who has always understood the things the Trasks are still attempting to learn.

— Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
Painful memories force her to confront first her own choices, then personal grief and finally, the family secrets that provide the novel’s distinctly elegiac and holistic tone.

— Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of grief

Noun

They are finally revealed as the head-lamps of a gang of thieves, robbing a church, caught closer up, their faces occasionally emerging from the gloom.

— John Hopewell, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026
Inside, we were whisked away to a world of rain and candles and velvet and creepy houses and stormy, witchy gloom.

— Danielle Pergament, Allure, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of gloom

Noun

And while there’d been some unhappiness between her and the Borden girls a few years before the murders — a disagreement over a property the family owned — there wasn’t the kind of outright resentment portrayed in the show.

— Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2026
The post and later comments arrived two months before the midterm elections, where Americans’ unhappiness with persistent high inflation has been a dominant theme.

— Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of unhappiness

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sadly

sadness

safari

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“Sadness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sadness. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of sadness

noun

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