piteous
Americanadjective
-
exciting or deserving pity
-
archaic having or expressing pity
Related Words
See pitiful.
Other Word Forms
- overpiteous adjective
- overpiteously adverb
- overpiteousness noun
- piteously adverb
- piteousness noun
- unpiteous adjective
- unpiteously adverb
Etymology
Origin of piteous
1250–1300; Middle English; replacing pitous < Old French < Medieval Latin pietōsus. See pity, -ous
Explanation
If something's piteous, it makes you feel pity and concern. The piteous cries of the orphaned kittens under your porch might convince you to climb under there and gather them up so you could feed them. Use the adjective piteous when you want to describe something that deserves your feelings of compassion and sympathy. A baby's cry, a miserable facial expression, and a pleading voice can all be piteous if they make you feel bad and want to help. The root word of piteous is the Latin pietas, meaning dutiful conduct or compassion. In Medieval Latin, it became pietosus and meant both merciful and pitiful.
Vocabulary lists containing piteous
An Excerpt from "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead
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The Jungle Book
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a performance as piteous as it is quietly moving.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
"The amount you get per stream is piteous, so it's more likely you're going to be in a flat-share with five other people in East London."
From BBC • Mar. 19, 2024
As I type this — alone in an upstairs room — a piteous sound is issuing from the floor below.
From Washington Post • Aug. 7, 2022
When Sarah, introducing herself to her class, mentions a brother who died, her reflex not to seem piteous makes her explanation weirdly funny: “He was just like a baby, so it wasn’t sad or anything.”
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2022
At this, the creature set up a loud and piteous whining, rolled his eyes, and beat the ground with his palms.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
