States and conditions
Synonyms for pathetic
Synonyms for pathetic: poor and pitiful. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 2 synonyms for pathetic
- pooradjective, in the sense "deserving or inciting pity"
- pitifuladjective, in the sense "inspiring mixed contempt and pity"
Two senses of pathetic, two audited synonyms, one for each. The bank does not stack alternatives under a sense it has not separated.
deserving or inciting pity
The shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic.
The true synonym
poor
Same sentence, swapped: The shabby room struck her as extraordinarily poor.
Close but different
The game shows these three beside the answer. Each is a real word with a real meaning and none of them fits the slot pathetic is in above, which is the point the reason line makes.
- ridiculous
- painful
- touching
inspiring mixed contempt and pity
Their efforts were pathetic.
The true synonym
pitiful
Same sentence, swapped: Their efforts were pitiful.
Close but different
The game offers these three alongside the answer. They are close enough to tempt and wrong enough to be wrong, which is the whole design.
- painful
- sharp
- uncomfortable
Where pathetic turns up in the game
pathetic is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across two difficulty tiers. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in two other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where pathetic is the trap
- pooradjective, Tier 1, Foothills. The answer there is short, in the sense "of insufficient quantity to meet a need", and pathetic is one of the three tiles that lose.
- ridiculousadjective, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is absurd, in the sense "so unreasonable as to invite derision", with pathetic sitting one tile away.
Play pathetic
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so pathetic reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
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Closest first: other states and conditions words at Foothills, then the same tier across the rest of the library.
A reason under every answer, not just a right answer
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. pathetic carries 1 written reason line, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.