"pitiable" meaning in English

See pitiable in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈpɪti.əbəl/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pitiable.wav [Southern-England] Forms: more pitiable [comparative], most pitiable [superlative]
Etymology: From Middle French [Term?], from Old French piteable. By surface analysis, pity + -able. Etymology templates: {{der|en|frm}} Middle French [Term?], {{der|en|fro|piteable}} Old French piteable, {{surf|en|pity|-able}} By surface analysis, pity + -able Head templates: {{en-adj}} pitiable (comparative more pitiable, superlative most pitiable)
  1. That deserves, evokes or can be given pity; pitiful. Derived forms: pitiableness, pitiably, unpitiable Translations (that deserves, evokes or can be given pity): ἐλεεινός (eleeinós) (Ancient Greek), οἰκτρός (oiktrós) (Ancient Greek), жалък (žalǎk) (Bulgarian), клет (klet) (Bulgarian), 悲悽 /悲凄 (bēiqī) (Chinese Mandarin), ubohý (Czech), žalostný (Czech), pitoyable (French), bedauerlich (German), bedauernswert (German), erbärmlich (German), kläglich (German), erbarmenswert (German), truacánta (Irish), treih (Manx), lastimero (Spanish), lastimoso (Spanish), acınası (Turkish)
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      "derived": [
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          "text": "Mr Poyser had no reason to be ashamed of his leg, and suspected that the growing abuse of top-boots and other fashions tending to disguise the nether limbs, had their origin in a pitiable degeneracy of the human calf.",
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          "text": "The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago.",
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          "word": "piteous"
        },
        {
          "word": "pitisome"
        },
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          "word": "ruthful"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
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          "word": "compassionate"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
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          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
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          "word": "pathetisad"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "piteous"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitiable"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitiful"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitisome"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "poor"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "rueful"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "ruthful"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "snivelly"
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          "code": "bg",
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          "roman": "žalǎk",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "жалък"
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          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "lang_code": "bg",
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          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
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          "lang_code": "cmn",
          "roman": "bēiqī",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "悲悽 /悲凄"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "lang_code": "cs",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "ubohý"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "lang_code": "cs",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "žalostný"
        },
        {
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          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "pitoyable"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "bedauerlich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "bedauernswert"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "erbärmlich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "kläglich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "erbarmenswert"
        },
        {
          "code": "grc",
          "lang": "Ancient Greek",
          "lang_code": "grc",
          "roman": "eleeinós",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "ἐλεεινός"
        },
        {
          "code": "grc",
          "lang": "Ancient Greek",
          "lang_code": "grc",
          "roman": "oiktrós",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "οἰκτρός"
        },
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          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "lang_code": "ga",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "truacánta"
        },
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          "code": "gv",
          "lang": "Manx",
          "lang_code": "gv",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "treih"
        },
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          "code": "es",
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          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "lastimero"
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          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
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          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "lang_code": "tr",
          "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
          "word": "acınası"
        }
      ]
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}
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        {
          "word": "ruthful"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
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          "word": "compassionate"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pathetic"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "tags": [
            "rare"
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          "word": "pathetisad"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "piteous"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitiable"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitiful"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "pitisome"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "poor"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "rueful"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "ruthful"
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        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:pitiful",
          "word": "snivelly"
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          "word": "sorry-ass"
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      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "lang_code": "bg",
      "roman": "žalǎk",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "жалък"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "lang_code": "bg",
      "roman": "klet",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "клет"
    },
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "bēiqī",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "悲悽 /悲凄"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "lang_code": "cs",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "ubohý"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "lang_code": "cs",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "žalostný"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "pitoyable"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "bedauerlich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "bedauernswert"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "erbärmlich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "kläglich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "erbarmenswert"
    },
    {
      "code": "grc",
      "lang": "Ancient Greek",
      "lang_code": "grc",
      "roman": "eleeinós",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "ἐλεεινός"
    },
    {
      "code": "grc",
      "lang": "Ancient Greek",
      "lang_code": "grc",
      "roman": "oiktrós",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "οἰκτρός"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "lang_code": "ga",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "truacánta"
    },
    {
      "code": "gv",
      "lang": "Manx",
      "lang_code": "gv",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "treih"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "lastimero"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "lastimoso"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "lang_code": "tr",
      "sense": "that deserves, evokes or can be given pity",
      "word": "acınası"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pitiable"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pitiable meaning in English (6.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (03da280 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.