How to Use sorrowful in a Sentence

sorrowful

adjective
  • My father, who used to be the calmest man, is so stressed and sorrowful.
    — Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2024
  • Whether overtly sorrowful or just confused, these are guys who have a lot to work on.
    — Esther Zuckerman, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Aug. 2023
  • This time the mood seemed more hopeful than bitter and sorrowful.
    — Pamela Constable, Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2023
  • Eno writes droll, sorrowful jokes that land late enough that your mind doesn’t have time to be amused or upset.
    — Helen Shaw, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2021
  • Kwok cracks open Sylvie’s heart, spilling its sorrowful contents for all the world to see.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 6 June 2019
  • Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge.
    — al, 28 Aug. 2021
  • Deprived of her children full time, a good mother would feel sorrowful and bereft.
    — Lara Bazelon, Slate Magazine, 13 June 2017
  • Some, however, were sorrowful that a piece of their childhood would be lost.
    — Elvia Limón, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2023
  • Then, a sorrowful adieu as paradise transformed into a pair of flights.
    — Irv Erdos Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 July 2021
  • The ride home was sorrowful for her as the cat grappled with being apart from her twin for the first time ever.
    — Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Giselle returns to her grave; Albrecht is left safe but sorrowful.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 21 Sep. 2019
  • In the back of her mind is a college girlfriend whose life veered in a sorrowful direction.
    — New York Times, 15 Dec. 2021
  • The judges would look embarrassed and sorrowful.
    — Laura Vazquez, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
  • At the other end of the bar was the curtained hatch to the back kitchen, then the sorrowful passageway to the jacks.
    — Kevin Barry, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022
  • Her sorrowful expression left many people in tears, and many shared their hopes for an adoption.
    — Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The Post’s voice just might persuade Biden to end a sorrowful state of affairs.
    — Washington Post, 5 July 2024
  • Then there is his massive, sorrowful Great Dane, who now belongs to her.
    — The Atlantic, 16 May 2022
  • No other actor this year delivered a line with more sorrowful force.
    — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 27 Feb. 2025
  • The history of medicine is filled with great achievement and sorrowful failure.
    — Carolyn Barber, Fortune, 17 June 2022
  • One popular tale involves a woman who lost her child in the woods whose sorrowful spirit is said to still roam the trail.
    — Paula Conway, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Many hopeful young upstarts end up cast in the game's scrapheap, but none feel more sorrowful than Götze's decline.
    — SI.com, 15 May 2018
  • This isn’t a lowlight so much as an acknowledgment that the event was often deeply sorrowful.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 3 Mar. 2021
  • After evening fell, a somber, sorrowful crowd in the hundreds kept a vigil by the memorial.
    — Jack Brook, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
  • After evening fell, a somber, sorrowful crowd in the hundreds kept a vigil by the memorial.
    — Jack Brook, Twin Cities, 25 Jan. 2026
  • The nonprofit leader was at first outraged and then sorrowful.
    — John Byrne, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2022
  • As men prepared to remove the off-white coffin, women sang a sorrowful hymn into the darkness.
    — New York Times, 30 May 2022
  • With just one episode remaining, the neo-Western sets the stage for sorrowful farewells and fresh beginnings.
    — Matt Cabral, EW.com, 9 Dec. 2024
  • As the two catch up, Crudup veers from good-natured to sorrowful to bitter to menacing in a matter of minutes.
    — Jenelle Riley, Variety, 2 Jan. 2026
  • Season 2’s prevailing tone is at once more serious and less sorrowful.
    — Graham Hillard, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
  • These were celebrations of every event both joyful and sorrowful in the family & the love & joy there was profound.
    — sun-sentinel.com, 11 Dec. 2019

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

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