Sad

How to spell sad

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sad

What does sad mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing unhappiness, sorrow, or low spirits.

Sad in a sentence

• The film had a sad ending that left the audience quiet.

• She felt sad when her closest colleague moved away.

Where does sad come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word descends from the Old English 'sæd', which originally meant 'sated', 'full', or 'weary', a sense connected to having had enough of something. It shares an ancient Germanic root with the same idea behind the Latin 'satis' (enough), the source of modern words like 'satisfy' and 'saturate'. Over the centuries the meaning drifted from 'weary' and 'tired of' toward 'heavy' or 'serious', and then to the emotional 'unhappy' sense familiar today, which became dominant by the late medieval period. The short, plain spelling has stayed simple because the word remained part of the everyday core of English rather than passing through French or Latin reshaping. That stability is exactly why 'sad' is one of the least troublesome words in the language to spell.

How the word is built

• sad (a single Old English root meaning 'sated' or 'weary'; not built from a prefix or suffix)