List of 426 Sets of Synonyms - How they Differ - Total of 2307 Words - 338

SYNONYMS: sad, melancholy, sorrowful, doleful, woebegone, desolate.
These adjectives all mean affected with or marked by unhappiness, as that caused by affliction.

Sad is the most general: Better by far you should forget and smile, than that you should remember and be sad.
Melancholy can refer to a lingering or habitual state of mind marked by somberness or sadness: The patient's face, though it was melancholy, brightened at the arrival of the guests.
Sorrowful . applies to mental pain such as that resulting from irreparable loss: "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful" Proverbs 14:13)
Doleful describes what is mournful, morose, or gloomy: The chastised child looked at her father with a doleful expression.
Woebegone suggests grief or wretchedness, especially as it is reflected in a person's appearance: His sorrow made him look haggard and woebegone.
Desolate applies to one that is sorrowful to the point of being beyond consolation: We were stranded in this desolate place.