1
general::
noun ADJ. deep, great, real, unutterable QUANT. hint VERB + SADNESS be filled with, be full of, feel Claudia felt a deep sadness. | express, show | hide | bring (sb) I had brought nothing but sadness to my family. | be tinged with Our joy was tinged with sadness. PREP. with ~ It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of William Hales. | ~ about/at/over He expressed his sadness about what had happened. | ~ for Kate felt a great sadness for him. PHRASES an air/aura of sadness a lonely place with an aura of sadness | a feeling/sense of sadness
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
2
general::
sadness
a sad feeling, caused especially when a happy time is ending, or when you feel sorry about someone else’s unhappiness:
• Charles felt a great sense of sadness and loss. • I noticed a little sadness in her eyes.
unhappiness
the unhappy feeling you have when you are in a very difficult or unpleasant situation, especially when this lasts for a long time:
• After years of unhappiness, she finally decided to leave him. • She was a tense, nervous young woman, whose deep unhappiness was obvious to all those around her. • You do not know how much pain and unhappiness you have caused.
sorrow
written the feeling of being very sad, especially because someone has died or because terrible things have happened to you:
• There seemed to be nowhere to go to be alone with her sorrow. • His heart was filled with great sorrow after her death.
misery
great unhappiness, caused especially by living or working in very bad conditions:
• The cold weather is with us again and the misery of the homeless is increasing. • Thousands of families were destined to a life of misery. • The misery and pain he caused were, for him, merely a measure of his success.
despair
a feeling of great unhappiness, because very bad things have happened and you have no hope that anything will change:
• At the end of the month, she still had no job and was tired, frustrated, and close to despair.
grief
great sadness that you feel when someone you love has died:
• He was overcome with grief when his wife died.
heartache
a strong feeling of great sadness, especially because you miss someone you love:
• She remembered the heartache of the first Christmas spent away from her sons.
depression
a mental illness that makes someone feel so unhappy that they have no energy or hope for the future, and they cannot live a normal life:
• He slipped into a depression in which he hardly ate or even left his room.
despondency
formal a feeling of being very unhappy and without hope:
• She felt useless, and this contributed to her despondency.
melancholy
literary a feeling of sadness, that you feel even though there is no particular reason for it:
• Modigliani expressed his melancholy through his painting.
Longman-Thesaurus