A sad tone word is used by the writer to express their sad attitude towards a certain topic in a story by choosing the right words which can be used in a particular context.
Related: 200 Tone Words With Examples
Below is the list of words with a sad tone that can be used to reflect the sad mood of a writer for their preferred subject matter in a story that the writer thinks that it deserves a sad perspective.
General examples are also included with every sad tone word in the list to help you understand any tone words easily.
Related: Sad Feeling Words List
Tone Words For Sad (with Examples)-
1. Apologetic
Meaning: feeling sorry or showing regret for your action that caused trouble, inconvenience, or hurt someone.
Example- Jennifer was apologetic for not attending his brother’s wedding.
2. Bleak
Meaning: not hopeful; without hope or encouragement; depressing
Example– After the harsh arguments, their future together looked pretty bleak.
3. Depressing
Meaning: make you feel sad, unhappy, without hope, or inadequate
Example- Whatever happened at the meeting was depressing, but James had no options except keep looking for investors to support his futuristic idea.
4. Despairing
Meaning: feeling hopeless; resulting from despair; losing all confidence
Example- Adam’s despairing face was evident to his family when he came from his job’s interview.
5. Disheartening
Meaning: making one feel disappointed, less confident, less hopeful; discouraging, dispiriting
Example– The first hour of the football match was very disheartening for the while team when their caption got injured badly.
6. Disgruntled
Meaning: unhappy, dissatisfied.
Example- He was a bit disgruntled after joining his first job at his father’s company.
7. Dismal
Meaning: sad and without hope; something bad in a sad or depressing way
Example- His dismal expression at his speech was evident on his face.
9. Demoralizing
Meaning: causing you to lose confidence, hope, or enthusiasm; discouraging
Example- Her coach’s demoralizing remarks on her performance left her disheartened.
10. Dejection
Meaning: feeling sad and depressed with disappointment
Example- She stayed at her home the whole day in utter dejection.
Related: Positive Tone Words
11. Distress
Meaning: extreme sorrow, worry, suffering or pain
Example- After missing her beloved pet, her distress increased day by day until one day the good news came.
12. Gloomy
Meaning: hopeless, sad, depressing, melancholy; deeply or partially dark in appearance; causing gloom
Example- The weather suddenly turned gloomy.
13. Grave
Meaning: very bad, serious, worrying, critical, important
Example- Elizabeth didn’t know that he had made a grave mistake by ignoring his father’s warnings about his hiking in the bears breeding season.
14. Hollow
Meaning: lacking real value, worth, or sincerity; pointless
Example- Mary was not interested in marrying her partner but yet she kept on deceiving him with her hollow promises just to use him for her own benefits.
15. Lament
Meaning: expressing sadness, regret, or grief
Example- Mr. Smith deeply lamented that he didn’t give much time to her wife which led to their divorce.
16. Lugubrious
Meaning: looking very sad and serious; mournful; dismal
Example- The lugubrious character in the novel finds peace when her daughter returns.
17. Melancholy
Meaning: an intense feeling of sadness often without any obvious reasons and lasting for a long time period; feel, express, or look sad; pensive, depressed
Example- The end to her melancholy only made possible by the continuous efforts of her friends.
18. Pathetic
Meaning: someone sad, weak or helpless; causing a feeling of pity, sorrow, or sympathy
Example- His whole family was living in a pathetic condition until he started his own company which soon turned into a profitable business.
19. Resentful
Meaning: feeling or showing bitterness or indignation at being mistreated
Example- Adam felt resentful in his math’s teacher class which lead him in not doing well in the subject.
20. Somber
Meaning: very serious, or sad; dark, dull, and gloomy
Example- The death of his pet was the reason for his somber mood all the time.
21. Solemn
Meaning: not cheerful; serious
Example– His so solemn way of talking with people every time made everyone disliking him.
22. Wretched
Meaning: in a miserable condition, unhappy, distressed, or depressed
Example- No politician took notice of the wretched life of the homeless people.
23. Woe
Meaning: expressing great sorrow, distress or grief
Example- She experienced such woe when her grandmother passed away.
Related: Serious Tone Words
