Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to express sorrow, regret, grief, compassion, or apprehension of danger or evil.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An exclamation expressive of sorrow, grief, pity, concern, or apprehension of evil: in old writers sometimes followed by the day or the while: as, alas the day, alas the while. See alackaday.
Wiktionary
- interj. Used to express sorrow, regret, compassion or grief.
GNU Webster's 1913
- interj. An exclamation expressive of sorrow, pity, or apprehension of evil; -- in old writers, sometimes followed by
day orwhite ;alas the day , likealack a day , oralas the white .
WordNet 3.0
- adv. by bad luck
Etymologies
- From Old French a las (French hélas), from a ("ah") + las, from Latin lassus ("weary"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French a las, helas, ah (I am) miserable, from Latin lassus, weary; see lē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“About the time Carver was recovering from rejection of that story, Samuel Vaughn at Doubleday returned a manuscript of stories.53 Ray asked Lish to take a look at it, noting that he was sticking with his title alas, he does not say what it was after rejecting “for instance, ‘Bad Check, His Mama, and Beautiful Songs.’””
“This, alas, is going to end up throwing off the "contest," because if I declare myself done at 60,000 or 65,000 words, that's not fair to Kelly would will surely write exactly as many words as required.”
“This, alas, is not a reasonable way to write a novel.”
“This cup, alas, is unuseable, because it has a longitudinal crack inside.”
“Cameron, alas, is merely reflecting the primitive state of the British debate on the EU.”
“That sort of thinking, alas, is why most of the population has such a hard time connecting with the tech world, and why many view computers and kindred devices with fear and suspicion.”
Cory Doctorow Shouldn’t Buy an iPad, but Maybe You Should « Steve Wildstrom on Tech
“The only other nonwhite face on tap, alas, is the unguided missile Michael Steele, its new national chairman.”
“My mother, alas, is still with us, I say alas because passed a certain point prolongation approaches uncivility ( 'un' - is also valid, I looked it up.)”
“The same, alas, is rarely true of technology, where things going wrong are the order of the day.”
“Equally foolish, alas, is the strategy of over-compensating, of putting everything out there as free and legal MP3s.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘alas’.
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Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
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When a door is ajar
Words with the prefix "a"
ajar, asleep, akin, ablaze, afoot, abed, aground, aback, afloat, alive, abaft, abloom and 91 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
him and i
peach, left, alone, abandon, horid, gay, bloody, beautiful, outside, inside, confused, unconditional and 111 more...
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Vocabulary Words
words to reference while writing something
cohesive, epitome, tempered, imply, prudent, sundry, sagest, agitation, giddy, disposition, inclination, gracious and 114 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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aliko's Words
deli, turkey, bodrum, deniz, sunny, seks, tatil, hava, zeeman, captain, kapitein, kaptan and 256 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
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Scriptie: The Two Towers
dampen, treacherous, black gate, man-flesh, precious, elvish, dwarf, pursuit, quarry, hobbit, sprinters, horse lords and 236 more...
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words
absquatulate, conceivable, daylight, fuselage, necromancy, obsequiously, orotund, pusillanimous, tooth, abhor, abide, abscissa and 111 more...
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wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
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Baron Luke's Collection
An assortment of words, which, when used, should inject some vibrancy into your day, hopefully expunging any ennui!
expunge, cogitate, elucidate, post-haste, rebarbative, recalcitrant, smite, absquatulate, forlorn, thole, nefarious, insubordination and 124 more...
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working list
overkill, premonition, discombobulation, golliwogs, guerilla, paraphernalia, banter, gambit, atonement, leeway, ingenuity, haberdashery and 164 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for alas.
lea To an eager, admiring dog I usually say 'ALAS', with a very low and determined voice. (If you start to laugh - or even worse - giggle after that, you only get your face licked. I hope to God it never happens in a bar with an eager admirer. :o}) Mar 5, 2009
bilby Particularly an eager, admiring dog. Mar 5, 2009
lea Down! (=Finnish) as you would say to a dog, for example. Or to an eager admirer in a bar, around the wee hours. Mar 5, 2009
sonofgroucho Not to mention alack. Dec 12, 2007