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Pitiful vs Pitifulness - What's the difference?

pitiful | pitifulness |

As an adjective pitiful

is feeling pity; merciful.

As a noun pitifulness is

the state or quality of being pitiful.

pitiful

English

Alternative forms

* pitifull (archaic)

Adjective

(pitifuller)
  • Feeling pity; merciful.
  • * 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick :
    • Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful .
  • So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
    • Scotland has a pitiful climate.
  • Very small (of an amount or number).
    • A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    * pitiable * pity

    pitifulness

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state or quality of being pitiful.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1920, author=Katharine Newlin Burt, title=Hidden Creek, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=He had definitely shed the pitifulness of his childhood. }}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1854, author=Theodor Mommsen, title=The History of Rome, Book V, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The Jugurtha of the same author is in an exactly similar way designed partly to expose the pitifulness of the oligarchic government, partly to glorify the Coryphaeus of the democracy, Gaius Marius. }}