Definitions for Pity
ˈpɪt ipity

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.6 / 5 votes

1. commiseration, pity, ruth, pathosnoun

   a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others

   "the blind are too often objects of pity"

2. pity, shamenoun

   an unfortunate development

   "it's a pity he couldn't do it"

3. compassion, pityverb

   the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

4. feel for, pity, compassionate, condole with, sympathize withverb

   share the suffering of

WiktionaryRate this definition:3.7 / 3 votes

1. pitynoun

   A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

2. pitynoun

   (countable but not used in the plural) Something regrettable.

3. pityverb

   To feel pity for (someone or something).

4. pityinterjection

   Short form of what a pity.

5. Etymology: From pité, pittee etc., from pitet, pitié, from pietas.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. PITYnoun

   Etymology: pitie, Fr. pieta, Italian.

   1. Compassion; sympathy with misery; tenderness for pain or uneasiness.

   Thou hast scourged and taken pity on me. Tob. xi. 15.

   Wan and meagre let it look,
   With a pity-moving shape. Edmund Waller.

   An ant dropt into the water; a woodpigeon took pity of her, and threw her a little bough. Roger L'Estrange.

   Lest the poor should seem to be wholly disregarded by their maker, he hath implanted in men a quick and tender sense of pity and compassion. Edmund Calamy, Sermons.

   When Æneas is forced in his own defence to kill Lausus, the poet shows him compassionate; he has pity on his beauty and youth, and is loth to destroy such a masterpiece of nature. John Dryden, Dufresnoy.

   The mournful train
   With groans and hands upheld, to move his mind,
   Besought his pity to their helpless kind. Dryden.

   2. A ground of pity; a subject of pity or of grief.

   That he is old, the more is the pity, his white hairs do witness it. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

   Julius Cæsar writ a collection of apophthegms; it is pity his book is lost. Francis Bacon.

   ’Tis great pity we do not yet see the history of Chasmir. William Temple.

   See, where she comes, with that high air and mien,
   Which marks in bonds the greatness of a queen,
   What pity ’tis. Dryden.

   What pity ’tis you are not all divine. Dryden.

   Who would not be that youth? what pity is it
   That we can die but once to serve our country? Addis.

   3. It has in this sense a plural. In low language.

   Singleness of heart being a virtue so necessary, ’tis a thousand pities it should be discountenanced. Roger L'Estrange.

2. To Pityverb

   To compassionate misery; to regard with tenderness on account of unhappiness.

   Etymology: pitoyer, Fr.

   When I desired their leave, that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house. William Shakespeare.

   He made them to be pitied of all. Psalm cvi. 46.

   You I could pity thus forlorn. John Milton.

   Compassionate my pains! she pities me!
   To one that asks the warm return of love,
   Compassion’s cruelty, ’tis scorn, ’tis death. Addison.

3. To Pityverb

   To be compassionate.

   I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Jeremiah xiii. 14.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pity

   Pity is a sympathetic sorrow evoked by the suffering of others, and is used in a comparable sense to compassion, condolence or empathy – the word deriving from the Latin pietas (etymon also of piety). Self-pity is pity directed towards oneself. Two different kinds of pity can be distinguished, "benevolent pity" and "contemptuous pity" (see Kimball), where, through insincere, pejorative usage, pity is used to connote feelings of superiority, condescension, or contempt.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pity

   Pity is a feeling of compassion, sorrow or sympathy towards the suffering or misfortune of others, often provoked by their perceived helplessness or a desire to help alleviate their distress.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pitynoun

   piety

2. Pitynoun

   a feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration

3. Pitynoun

   a reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted

4. Pityverb

   to feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering

5. Pityverb

   to move to pity; -- used impersonally

6. Pityverb

   to be compassionate; to show pity

WikidataRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Pity

   Pity means feeling for others, particularly feelings of sadness or sorrow, and is used in a comparable sense to the more modern words "sympathy" and "empathy". Through insincere usage, it can also have a more unsympathetic connotation of feelings of superiority or condescension. The word "pity" comes from the Latin word "Pietas". The word is often used in the translations from Ancient Greek into English of Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric. Aristotle argued that before a person can feel pity for another human, the person must first have experienced suffering of a similar type, and the person must also be somewhat distanced or removed from the sufferer. In Aristotle's Rhetoric he defines pity as follows: "Let pity, then, be a kind of pain in the case of an apparent destructive or painful harm of one not deserving to encounter it, which one might expect oneself, or one of one's own, to suffer, and this when it seems near". Aristotle also pointed out that "people pity their acquaintances, provided that they are not exceedingly close in kinship; for concerning these they are disposed as they are concerning themselves...For what is terrible is different from what is pitiable, and is expulsive of pity". Thus, from Aristotle's perspective, in order to feel pity, a person must believe that the person who is suffering does not deserve their fate. Developing a traditional Greek view in his work on poetry, Aristotle also defines tragedy as a kind of imitative poetry that provokes pity and fear.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pity

   pit′i, n. a strong feeling for or with the sufferings of others: sympathy with distress: a cause or source of pity or grief.—v.t. to feel pity with: to sympathise with:—pa.t. and pa.p. pit′ied.—adj. Pit′iable, deserving pity: affecting: wretched.—n. Pit′iableness.—adv. Pit′iably.—n. Pit′ier, one who pities.—adj. Pit′iful, feeling pity: compassionate: exciting pity: sad: despicable.—adv. Pit′ifully.—n. Pit′ifulness.—adj. Pit′iless, without pity: cruel.—adv. Pit′ilessly.—n. Pit′ilessness.—adv. Pit′yingly, in a pitying manner.—It pitieth me, you, them, &c. (Pr. Bk.), it causeth pity in me, you, them, &c. [O. Fr. pite (Fr. pitié, It. pietà)—L. pietas, pietatis—pius, pious.]

The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon WurdzRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. PITY

   An emotion awakened in a man's mind when he beholds the children of a woman who might have married him instead.

British National Corpus

1. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Pity' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3493

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Pity' in Nouns Frequency: #2045

How to pronounce Pity?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Pity in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Pity in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Pity in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of Pity in a Sentence

1. Wildo Araujo:

   I have the utmost respect for the armed forces, but I pity those entering now because they have no idea what to do, they don't know how to deal with the Brazilian public health system.

2. Kurt Vonnegut:

   I was taught in the sixth grade that we had a standing army of just over a hundred thousand men and that the generals had nothing to say about what was done in Washington. I was taught to be proud of that and to pity Europe for having more than a million men under arms and spending all their money on airplanes and tanks. I simply never unlearned junior civics. I still believe in it. I got a very good grade.

3. John W. Gardner:

   Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

4. Voltaire Alferez:

   We are not here to call for sympathy, much less pity. We are calling for solidarity, action from all governments, we are not debating anymore at the Lima climate summit on whether the impacts of climate change are real. We should be taking action now.

5. JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699):

   The devil and the damned have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succor, crying without comfort, mischief without measure, torments without end and past imagination. John Trapp

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Pity
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Pity
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Pity
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pity
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pity
7. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Pity
8. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Pity
9. ^ The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1989/pg1989-images.html#:~:text=Pity