different between sorrowful vs heartrending

English

Etymology

From Middle English sorweful, from Old English sorhful, sorgful (“full of care; anxious; sorrowful”), from Proto-Germanic *surgafullaz (“full of care; anxious”), equivalent to sorrow +? -ful. Cognate with Old High German sorgfol (“careful; anxious”), Norwegian sorgfull (“sorrowful”), Icelandic sorgfullur (“lamentable”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?s??o?f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s??o?f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s????f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?s????f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• Hyphenation: sor?row?ful

Adjective

sorrowful (comparative more sorrowful, superlative most sorrowful)

1. (of a person) exhibiting sorrow; dejected; distraught.
2. Producing sorrow; causing grief.

   sorrowful accident

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23

     She threw her arms around the Lion's neck and kissed him, patting his big head tenderly. Then she kissed the Tin Woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his joints. But she hugged the soft, stuffed body of the Scarecrow in her arms instead of kissing his painted face, and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from her loving comrades.

Synonyms

• mournful, lamentable, grievous
• See also Thesaurus:sad
• See also Thesaurus:lamentable

Translations

Further reading

• sorrowful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sorrowful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Alternative forms

• heart-rending

Etymology

heart +? rending

Adjective

heartrending (comparative more heartrending, superlative most heartrending)

1. That causes great grief, anguish or distress.

   Synonym: heart-breaking
2. That elicits deep sympathy.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Further reading

• “heart-rending”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.