How to Use pathetic in a Sentence

pathetic

adjective
  • The blind, old dog was a pathetic sight.
  • His car is a pathetic piece of junk.
  • The story he told was a pathetic attempt to cover up a lie.
  • The team was pretty bad last year, but this year they're downright pathetic.
  • How pathetic that is to have to even say it.
    — Paulina Dedaj, FOXNews.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • That does not sound pathetic and small to me.
    — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Most of it has been plagued by pathetic showings on the field.
    — Scooby Axson, USA TODAY, 30 Oct. 2022
  • Now, any of the most pathetic four can draft first overall.
    — Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
  • The pathetic leaks didn’t work.
    — Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 2 Mar. 2026
  • There’s even been talk of the need for some sort of amnesty, which sounds pretty pathetic.
    — Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Just a pathetic, sad old man who hated the world and spent his days in solitude.
    — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 8 May 2026
  • The challenge here is putting into words just how pathetic that was.
    — Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times, 17 Dec. 2017
  • The trees were thin and pathetic and nearly leafless at first.
    — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2021
  • There is always moral suasion — but this can seem weak and pathetic.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 7 Nov. 2019
  • Not up to snuff, that thin pathetic shell, phased out years ago by new safety standards.
    — T Kira Madden, refinery29.com, 3 Aug. 2021
  • This is, frankly, pathetic -- and is killing millions of people a year.
    — Dr. Tom Frieden, CNN, 30 May 2021
  • The mum-and-dad state were to give the pathetic little creatures their due, thank you very much.
    — The Economist, 8 Jan. 2020
  • What the Tillerson test may reveal is what a pathetic group most of them are.
    — Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2017
  • The politicians who shut down the government are pathetic on both sides of the aisle.
    — Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 28 Mar. 2026
  • Gotta keep the bowl-game money rolling in, of course, and that truth makes this next part so laughably pathetic.
    — Joseph Goodman | [email protected], al, 22 Sep. 2021
  • Kamala has lied for years about their pathetic job growth, which has never been real.
    — Meg Kinnard, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2025
  • What meshed not long ago unraveled to the point of being pathetic.
    — Nick Canepa Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Maxwell comes off as both pathetic and loathsome.
    — Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Anyone who tells you different is a liar (and pathetic, and alone in life).
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 30 May 2025
  • Martha was pretty sure that the same warning from her would have come off as pathetic, if not insane.
    — Nell Freudenberger, The New Yorker, 28 July 2024
  • Kushal sees the grimy, pathetic side of him; his father sees the noble, tragic one.
    — Deborah Treisman, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
  • Now the fans want the Giants to clean house again, fed up with the pathetic product on the field.
    — Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 15 Dec. 2024
  • Want the poop on this pathetic history?
    — Brian Domitrovic, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The gags are sophomoric and the overall story line is as pathetic as the concept.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 17 May 2021
  • The officer’s bluster is even more pathetic in the face of what all these guys have had to endure.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pathetic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: