Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Feeling or expressing sympathy, pity, or regret: I'm sorry I'm late.
  2. adj. Worthless or inferior; paltry: a sorry excuse.
  3. adj. Causing sorrow, grief, or misfortune; grievous: a sorry development.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Feeling sorrow; grieved; sorrowful; unhappy; sad; pained; especially, feeling repentance or regret: noting either deep or slight, prolonged or transient, emotion.
  2. Causing sorrow; painful; grievous; mournful.
  3. Associated with sorrow; suggestive of grief or suffering; melancholy; dismal.
  4. Vile; wretched; worthless; mean; paltry; poor.
  5. Synonyms Vexed, chagrined.
  6. Pitiful, shabby.
  7. To sorrow; grieve.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Regretful for an action; grieved or saddened, especially by the loss of something or someone.
  2. adj. Poor, sad or regrettable.
  3. interj. Expresses regret, remorse, or sorrow.
  4. interj. Used as a request for someone to repeat something not heard or understood clearly.
  5. n. The act of saying sorry; an apology.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Grieved for the loss of some good; pained for some evil; feeling regret; -- now generally used to express light grief or affliction, but formerly often used to express deeper feeling.
  2. adj. Melancholy; dismal; gloomy; mournful.
  3. adj. Poor; mean; worthless.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. causing dejection
  2. adj. feeling or expressing regret or sorrow or a sense of loss over something done or undone
  3. adj. bad; unfortunate.
  4. adj. without merit

Etymologies

  1. Middle English sori, from Old English sārig, sad, from sār, sore.

Examples

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘sorry’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • gangerh To paraphrase Robert Orben
    'Illegal aliens have always been a problem in Australia. Ask any Aborigine.' Jan 31, 2008

  • kewpid On February 13, the first item of business in Australia's recently elected 42nd parliament will be an official apology from the Government to Australia's indigenous people, containing the critical word 'sorry'.

    It will be a recognition of past sins, an affirmation of progress, and a commitment to substantially improving the appalling social and economic gaps between Aboriginals and other Australians.

    February 13 becomes a day of reprieve, offered by the too rapid passage of time. Australians everywhere can be proud that we finally have a government committed to redressing this stain on our national conscience. Decades from now, this will be remembered as the day the nation finally matured. Jan 31, 2008

‘sorry’ has been looked up 1733 times, loved by 2 people, added to 25 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 8.