moving, impressive, poignant, affecting, touching, pathetic mean having the power to produce deep emotion. moving may apply to any strong emotional effect including thrilling, agitating, …

PATHETIC definition: 1. causing feelings of sadness, sympathy, or sometimes lack of respect, especially because a person…. Learn more.

PATHETIC definition: causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable. See examples of pathetic used in a sentence.

If you describe someone or something as pathetic, you mean that they make you feel impatient or angry, often because they are weak or not very good.

Dec 14, 2025 · pathetic (comparative more pathetic, superlative most pathetic) The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.

Definition of pathetic adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

1. causing or evoking pity, either sympathetically or contemptibly; pitiful: a pathetic sight; a pathetic return on our investment. 2. sad; sorrowful; mournful: a pathetic tone of voice.

Definition of pathetic. English dictionary and integrated thesaurus for learners, writers, teachers, and students with advanced, intermediate, and beginner levels.

causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable: a pathetic letter; a pathetic sight. affecting or moving the feelings. pertaining to or caused by the feelings. …

The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature that are not human. It is a kind of personification that occurs in poetic …