Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Pathetic |
PatheticAdjective1. Deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "couldn't rescue the poor fellow"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life". 2. Inspiring mixed contempt and pity; "their efforts were pathetic"; "pitiable lack of character"; "pitiful exhibition of cowardice". 3. Inspiring scornful pity; "how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years"- Dashiell Hammett. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pathetic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1385. (references) |
Synonyms: PatheticSynonyms: hapless (adj), miserable (adj), misfortunate (adj), piteous (adj), pitiable (adj), pitiful (adj), poor (adj), ridiculous (adj), silly (adj), wretched (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pain | Distressing; afflicting, afflictive; joyless, cheerless, comfortless; dismal, disheartening; depressing, depressive; dreary, melancholy, grievous, piteous; woeful, rueful, mournful, deplorable, pitiable, lamentable; sad, affecting, touching, pathetic. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pathetic |
| English words defined with "pathetic": aught ♦ cipher, cypher ♦ Doloroso ♦ goose egg ♦ Ineloquent ♦ Lacrimoso ♦ nada, naught, nil, nix, nothing, null ♦ pathetic fallacy, Pathetic muscle, Pathetic nerve, Pathetical ♦ The pathetic, tragicomic, tragicomical, trochlear nerve ♦ zero, zilch, zip. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pathetic": DIN ♦ Miletus ♦ Widow. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pathetic": Eupathy ♦ Pathetical ♦ sympathetic. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I got a really small dick, it's pathetic. (True Lies; writing credit: Claude Zidi; Simon Michal) Well, you are rather pathetic. (The Prince of Egypt; writing credit: Ken Harsha; Carole Holliday) He's a pedantic, pontificating, pretentious bastard, a pathetic old fart and a worthless steaming pile of cow dung, figuratively speaking. (Liar Liar; writing credit: Paul Guay; Stephen Mazur) You just think, How pathetic. Then he just looks away, and never looks back at you again. (Pump Up the Volume; writing credit: Allan Moyle) Ah - that's so pathetic. (Klute; writing credit: Andy Lewis; Dave Lewis) | |
Lyrics | It's so pathetic ("Stay Together For The Kids"; performing artist: Blink-182) This is pathetic and sardonic ("Objection (Tango)"; performing artist: Shakira) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Pathetic Gazette (1924) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The pathetic in the parterre.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | A pathetic appeal.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Edward Gibbon | The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | In cases of famine, emeute, Buzancais, for instance, has a true, pathetic, and just point of departure. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | There were very few specialized beauty products or brand stores, and the level of service there was very low. A couple of local beauty product manufacturers had their own brand stores, but they looked pathetic as they only offered a basic assortment of goods and constantly suffered from deficiency of basic products. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | WIDOW, n. A pathetic figure that the Christian world has agreed to take humorously, although Christ's tenderness towards widows was one of the most marked features of his character. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Pathetic" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.21% of the time. "Pathetic" is used about 659 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96.21% | 634 | 10,258 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.03% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.45% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Unclassified Items | 0.3% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 659 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "pathetic": pathetic fallacy ♦ pathetic muscle ♦ pathetic nerve ♦ pull out all the pathetic stop ♦ The pathetic. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "pathetic": perry-pathetic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
pathetic | 56 |
clown pathetic | 9 |
182 blink pathetic | 3 |
lyrics pathetic | 2 |
loser pathetic | 2 |
182 blink lyrics pathetic | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pathetic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | prekës (moving, pathetical, poignant, vibrant), i përçmuar (despicable, pathetical, wormy, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | محزن (depressing, dismal, distressing, doleful, dolorous, gloomy, grievous, mournful, rueful, sad, saddening, sorrowful, tragic, woeful), مثير للشفقة (pitchy, sorry, woeful), حزين (afflicted, cheerless, dejected, depressed, doleful, dolorous, downcast, drear, dreary, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholic, miserable, mournful, plaintive, rueful, sad, sore, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy, wailful, weary, wistful, woeful), شجي (mellow, melodious), بائس (afflicted, cheerless, deplorable, desolate, devil, disconsolate, distressed, forlorn, godforsaken, hapless, heel, helpless, lamentable, measly, miserable, paltry, penurious, piteous, pitiful, poor, poverty stricken, ratty, sad, scruffy, seedy, sickly, sordid, squalid, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | разчувствуван, трогателен (affecting, appealing, moving, poignant, touching), емоционален (affective, emotional, emotive, intense), прочувствен (affective, effusive, feeling, heartfelt, home-felt, intense), покъртителен (deeply touching), патетичен (declamatory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 可怜 (Deplorable, Pitiful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | patetický, dojímavý (touching), cituplný, žalostný (deplorable, lamentable, measly, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, regretful, rueful, woeful, woesome, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | nervus trochlearis (pathetic nerve, trochlear nerve). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | nervus trochlearis (pathetic nerve, trochlear nerve), nervus patheticus (pathetic nerve, trochlear nerve). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | موثر (Drastic, Effective, Efficacious, Impressive, Live, Operative, Pithy, Pivotal, Sensational, Valid, Weighty), حزن اور, تاثراور (Heinous), سوزناک (Plaintive, Pungent), احساساتی (Ebullient, Gushy, Mushy, Passionate, Rosewater, Sensational, Sentiment), رقت انگیز (Deplorable, Piteous, Pitiable, Pitiful), دارای احساسات شدید. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | pateettinen (high-flown). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | pitoyable, pathétique (pathos), navrant, minable. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | rührend (affecting, moving, poignant, stiring, stirring, touching, touchingly, toughing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συγκινητικόσ (affecting, emotional, moving, pathetical, thrilling, touching), οικτρόσ (pathetical, piteous, pitiable, pitiful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פתטי. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szánalmas (deplorable, forlorn, lamentable, miserable, miserly, piteous, pitiable, sad, woeful, woesome), érzelmes (emotional, melting, sentimental). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | patetico (lofty), commovente (affecting, emotional, moving, poignant, touching, toughing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 痛痛しい (pitiful), 痛々しい (pitiful), パステル" (catcher's error, parsley, passed ball, passport, password, pastel, pastoral, pathetic drama, personal, personal computer, puzzle), 悲愴 (sad), 悲壮 (touching, tragic), いかなる 合でも (anumber of, bad, bitch, come, complication, crucial moment, difficulties, forbidden, in any case, innocent, lovable, many, must not do, no entry, not good, now, paltry, piddling, pitiful, quarrel, reserved, servile, stubborn Kochi man, sweet, tangle, that's too bad, timid, to come, to grow timid, to orgasm, trouble, unable to be honest, well, whatever the case may be, wrong), "切 (plaintive), 傷々しい (pitiful), 傷傷しい (pitiful), 可"相 (pitiable, poor), 可"想 (pitiable, poor). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | パセティック , ひそう (cortex, sad, superficial, touching, tragic), かわいそう (pitiable, poor), いたいたしい (pitiful), いじらしい (innocent, lovable, pitiful, sweet), あいせつ (plaintive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | treih (abject, deplorable, doughy, drawn, feeble, forlorn, fragile, haggard, miserable, pale, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, regrettable, rueful, sallow, seedy, sickly, wan, wretched, wretched of thing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | atheticpay patético (pathway, touching), vereda (bypass, Lane, path, patience). (various references) patetic (pathetically, pathetics), vrednic de milã (piteous, pitiable), mişcãtor (exciting, mobile, moving, movingly, pathetically), jalnic (beggarly, deplorable, distressing, doleful, forlorn, heart rending, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, mangy, mean, miserable, miserably, mournful, pathetically, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, rueful, ruefully, sad, sorrowful, sorry, squalid, woeful, wretched), inutil (addle, beside the purpose, bootless, effete, excrescent, fruitless, idle, nugatory, pathetically, superfluous, unavailing, unfruitful, unnecessary, unprofitable, useless, uselessly, vain, wasteful, worthless), fãrã succes (poorly), emoţionant (exciting, gripping, moving, palpitating, pathetically, thrilling, touching), duios (affectionate, dearly, doleful, endearing, fond, loving, pathetically, soft, sorrowful, sweet, tender), desperat (abject, desperado, desperate, desperately, forlorn, gone, hopeless, madman, pathetically, temerarious). (various references) трогательный (appealing, heartwarming), патетический. (various references) patetičan. (various references) patético (pathetical, piteous, soulful). (various references) rörande (as to, concerning, moving, regarding, touching). (various references) yürek parçalayıcı (harrowing, heartbreaking, heartrending), hazin (dolorous, lugubrious, mournful, sad, sorrowful), dokunaklı (acidulous, affective, barbed, biting, eloquent, expressive, incisive, mordant, moving, poignant, pointed, pungent, scathing, sour, speaking, touching, trenchant), acınacak (deplorable, lamentable, pitiable, regrettable, rueful, woeful), acıklı (deplorable, depressing, distressful, distressing, dolorous, hurtful, lugubrious, piteous, rueful, sad, sorrowful, tearful, touching, weepy, woeful), ümitsiz (drear, dreary, forlorn, frantic, gloomy, gone, hopeless, past cure, past hope). (various references) naяynjar (pitiful, plaintive), gцzgyny (pitiable). (various references) зворушливий (affecting, appealing, feeling, interesting, moving, pathetical, touching), патетичний (pathetical). (various references) thống thiết (touching), lâm ly, cảm động (emotional, emotive, touching). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | pathetikos. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | misellus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pathetic": pathetical, pathetically. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "pathetic": antipathetic, apathetic, empathetic, parasympathetic, sympathetic, unsympathetic. (additional references) | |
Words containing "pathetic": antipathetically, apathetically, empathetically, parasympathetics, sympathetically, sympathetics, unsympathetically. (additional references) | |
| |
"Pathetic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: apthetic, athetoid, patetic, pathatic, pathedic, patheic, Pathet, pathethic, pathetics, patheyic, potassic, pothetic, psthetic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "pathetic" (pronounced puthe"tik) |
| 7 | p u th e" t i k | apathetic, empathetic, parasympathetic, sympathetic, unsympathetic. |
| 5 | -th e" t i k | aesthetic, anesthetic, kinesthetic, prosthetic, synthetic. |
| 4 | -e" t i k | acetic, alphabetic, apologetic, arithmetic, ascetic, athletic, cosmetic, diabetic, diamagnetic, dietetic, diuretic, electromagnetic, emetic, energetic, epigenetic, ferromagnetic, frenetic, genetic, geomagnetic, homiletic, hyperkinetic, kinetic, magnetic, paramagnetic, parthenogenetic, peripatetic, phonetic, poetic, prophetic, unapologetic. |
| 3 | -t i k | acoustic, acrobatic, aerobatic, agnostic, altruistic, amniotic, anachronistic, analytic, antagonistic, Antarctic, antibiotic, antic, anticlimactic, antiseptic, aortic, apocalyptic, apoplectic, aquatic, arctic, aristocratic, aromatic, arthritic, artistic, asthmatic, astronautic, asymptomatic, atavistic, atheistic, attic, authentic, autistic, autocratic, automatic, axiomatic, ballistic, bombastic, bureaucratic, capitalistic, catalytic, cathartic, caustic, chaotic, characteristic, charismatic, chauvinistic, chiropractic, cinematic, climactic, climatic, coloristic, critic, cryptic, cultic, cystic, democratic, dendritic, despotic, deterministic, diagnostic, diagrammatic, dialectic, didactic, diplomatic, dogmatic, domestic, dramatic, drastic, drumstick, dualistic, dynastic, ecclesiastic, eclectic, ecliptic, ecstatic, elastic, electrolytic, electrostatic, emblematic, emphatic, enigmatic, enthusiastic, enzymatic, epileptic, erotic, erratic, euphemistic, evangelistic, exotic, expressionistic, extragalactic, fanatic, fantastic, fatalistic, feudalistic, fiberoptic, frantic, futuristic, galactic, gigantic, granitic, gymnastic, halophytic, hectic, hedonistic, hemolytic, hepatic, heretic, hermaphroditic, holistic, homeostatic, humanistic, hypnotic, iconoclastic, idealistic, idiomatic, idiosyncratic, idiotic, imperialistic, impressionistic, individualistic, inelastic, interscholastic, jingoistic, journalistic, lactic, legalistic, linguistic, logistic, lymphatic, majestic, masochistic, materialistic, mathematic, mechanistic, melodramatic, militaristic, monastic, monochromatic, monopolistic, moralistic, mystic, narcissistic, narcotic, nationalistic, naturalistic, neritic, neurotic, novelistic, numismatic, oligopolistic, onomastic, operatic, opportunistic, optic, optimistic, orthodontic, pancreatic, pantheistic, paralytic, parasitic, paternalistic, patriotic, patristic, pectic, pedantic, peptic, pessimistic, phosphatic, plastic, pluralistic, pneumatic, polytheistic, porphyritic, posttraumatic, pragmatic, primitivistic, prismatic, problematic, programmatic, propagandistic, prophylactic, prostatic, psychoanalytic, psychosomatic, psychotherapeutic, psychotic, puristic, quixotic, realistic, relativistic, rheumatic, ritualistic, robotic, romantic, rustic, sadistic, sarcastic, schematic, scholastic, semantic, semiautomatic, semiotic, sensationalistic, septic, simplistic, skeptic, socialistic, static, statistic, stylistic, surrealistic, sycophantic, symbiotic, symptomatic, synergistic, systematic, tactic, technocratic, terroristic, thematic, theocratic, therapeutic, thermoplastic, thrombolytic, transatlantic, traumatic, triptych, unauthentic, uncharacteristic, undemocratic, undiplomatic, unenthusiastic, unpatriotic, unrealistic, voyeuristic. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-h-i-p-t-t" | |
-1 letter: aphetic, hepatic. | |
-2 letters: cattie, haptic, hepcat, pattie, phatic, thetic, tipcat. | |
-3 letters: aitch, attic, chape, chapt, cheap, cheat, epact, ethic, patch, peach, petit, petti, pieta, pitch, tacet, tache, tacit, teach, tecta, theca, theta, tithe. | |
-4 letters: ache, cape, caph, cate, chap, chat, chia, chip, chit, cite, each, eath, epha, epic, etch, etic, haet, hate, heap, heat, itch, pace, pact, pate, path, peat, pech, phat, pica, pice, pita, pith, tace, tach, tact, tape, tate, teat, tepa, teth, thae, that. | |
-5 letters: ace, act, ait, ape, apt, ate, att, cap, cat, cep, chi, eat, eta, eth, hae, hap, hat, hep, het, hic, hie, hip, hit, ice, ich, pac, pah, pat, pea, pec, peh, pet, phi, pht, pia, pic, pie, pit, tae, tap, tat, tea, tet, the, tic, tie, tip, tit. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-h-i-p-t-t" | |
+1 letter: apathetic, patchiest. | |
+2 letters: chapatties, empathetic, pathetical, telepathic. | |
+3 letters: epithetical, hepatotoxic, hyperstatic, osteopathic, pantheistic, parenthetic, paresthetic, sympathetic, therapeutic. | |
+4 letters: antipathetic, apothegmatic, cataphoretic, extrahepatic, gametophytic, hypothetical, pathetically, pathogenetic, patriarchate, sophisticate, sympathetics, therapeutics, trichopteran. | |
+5 letters: amphitheatric, apathetically, hematopoietic, hepatectomies, hyperactivity, hypothecating, hypothecation, mythopoetical, pantheistical, parasynthetic, parenthetical, pathogenicity, patriarchates, photoreaction, phreatophytic, preanesthetic, sophisticated, sophisticates, spectatorship, stratospheric, tachistoscope, thermoplastic, trichopterans, unsympathetic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 74 68 65 74 69 63 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- - .... . - .. -.-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110100 01101001 01100011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a t h e t i c |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0074 0068 0065 0074 0069 0063 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5067867471867569 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Orthography 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
