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dolorous

UK/ˈdɒləɹəs/US/ˈdɒləɹəs/
adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Dolorous means full of sorrow. A dolorous sigh, dolorous music, a dolorous expression.

It is literary and slightly heavy, which is why it is often used with a touch of humour about somebody being very sad indeed. The Latin behind it is dolor, pain, which is where dole and doleful come from too.

Definitions of dolorous

  1. 1adjectivedolorousFull of sorrow.C2

    “The dolorous music at the funeral made everyone weep.”

dolorous is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin dolorosus comes from dolor, pain or grief.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *delh₁-

  2. Latin

    dolōrōsus — painful

  3. Old French

    dolerous

  4. Middle English

    dolorous

  5. English, today

    dolorous

From Middle English dolorous, from Old French dolerous (modern French douloureux), from Latin dolōrōsus (“painful”), from Latin dolor. a doublet of dolorose.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word