What is the difference between sadness and sorrow

I wrote this about 4 weeks ago and am just not getting around to posting it Sorrow… That is not a word we use very often. We say sad or maybe even inconsolable. But sorrowful? Tonight, I was confronted head on with the word sorrow and it got me to wondering—what is the difference between sadness and sorrow?

I am good at expressing my grief or unhappiness. Sadness, though powerful, is fleeting. It is there for a short time, and eventually fades, like a bruise. I feel sadness—it is in my heart and mind. But there is where it stays. Sorrow, on the other hand, is different. Sorrow is another ballgame altogether, really. It is missing something, though. I feel as though sorrow has much more to do with our soul than with our feelings.

Sorrow sweeps into our hearts—it saturates our minds, and seeps into the very marrow of who we are. Sign up Sign in. English US. Question about English US. What is the difference between sorrow and grief and sadness? Feel free to just provide example sentences. It can be cathartic and relieve tension. Being sad is normal and healthy and will pass; depression has a negative impact on your life and needs to be addressed to get you back to a happy, healthy, functional place again.

The key is whether or not that sadness is paired with other factors of depression—loss of energy, trouble concentrating or making decisions, difficulty sleeping, disruption in eating patterns, feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness or thoughts of self harm. Grief is a normal reaction to a tremendous loss.

For some people, grief and sadness can segue into major depression. Add a comment. Example: I felt sadness after my father died but I live with sorrow since my only son was killed in the war.

Babel Babel 2 2 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. Short and to the point. Hayakawa, Choose the Right Word: A Modern Guide to Synonyms has this comment about sorrow as a verb: Sorrow may suggest milder feelings or a less tragic loss than the foregoing words [ grieve , mourn , and lament ]; it combines sadness with regret, contrasting with lament by suggesting grieving that is inward or, at most, quietly express: [example omitted]. Hayakawa does not address sadness or sorrow as a noun at all.

The MW entry for the sadness group offers these remarks: [The terms related to sadness ] are comparable when they mean a state of mind when one is unhappy or low-spirited or an attack of low spirits. Sadness is the general term; apart from the context it carries no explicit suggestions of the cause of the low spirits or of the extent to which one is deprived of cheerfulness [examples omitted] As for the sorrow group, MW has this: [The terms related to sorrow ], though not close synonyms, share the idea of distress of mind.

Sorrow is the most general term, implying a sense of loss or of guilt [examples omitted] The Merriam-Webster treatment of the two words suggests that the source of confusion between them isn't so much the similarity of the feelings they describe as the level of generality that each word operates on. Sven Yargs Sven Yargs k 30 30 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Sorrow is sadness with a more defined reason, i.

Sadness is a more general sentiment with a less precise definition. Michael Rize Michael Rize 2 2 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile.