Synonyms for 'Sad'

Synonyms for sad can be broken down into a couple groups because sad can be an adjective or a noun.
"It was a sad day from Americans."
"The sad cannot see all the wonderful the world offers every day."

Sad usually is an adjective found before a noun to denote behavior, emotion or appearance. Sad can mean grief or unhappiness, used to express appearance or behavior characterized by sorrow (sad song or sad eyes), causing sorrow (sad truth), or bad as in a sad example.

Synonyms for sad can mean unfortunate or bad such as distressing, lamentable, sorry, dark, cheerless, unhappy, terrible, miserable, dismal, heartbreaking, woeful, deplorable, pitiable, pitiful, grievous, tragic, moving, pathetic or poignant.

Synonyms for sad can come in extreme degrees as well from unhappy, gloomy, melancholy and bleak to terribly, disgusting, appalling and horrendous. Synonyms for sad can be mean uninteresting such as dull, boring, dreary, mind-numbing and uninteresting.

"All he does is sit on the couch all day long, what a sad excuse for a human being."
"His life in Alaska was wistful compared to the exciting and happy childhood he experienced in Florida."

There are a lot of synonyms for sad. Some of the synonyms for sad do not look like synonyms for sad until put into perspective. Bad, a synonym for sad, does not appear to be proper.
"The bad man hit the dog." In this sentence, bad is not a synonym for sad.
"However, the pay was bad; if not for bad luck he would have no luck whatsoever; his sloppy appearance and unkempt hair made a bad first impression."
Bad as a synonym for sad convey undesirable or negative qualities.
"The clothes were in bad shape."

Another of the synonyms for sad that look out of place is ‘sorry’. However, once you replace the word ‘sad’ from sentences with ‘sorry’ it becomes easier to understand why ‘sorry’ is one of many synonyms for sad.

"He has been broke for many years now, a very sad state of affairs indeed."
"He has been broke for many years now, a very sorry state of affairs indeed."

Sad as an emotion is perhaps easier to comprehend.
"The atmosphere at the funeral was dark as the crowded hall of sorrowful mourners sobbed uncontrollably."
"On March 12 every year, the day his wife died, he always looks haggard and woebegone."


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