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Sadness vs Sadly - What's the difference?

sadness | sadly |

As a noun sadness

is the state or emotion of being sad.

As an adverb sadly is

in a sad manner; sorrowfully.

sadness

English

(wikipedia sadness)

Noun

  • (uncountable) The state or emotion of being sad.
  • (countable) An event in one's life that causes sadness.
    • She has experienced many sadnesses in her forty years.

    Synonyms

    * (state of being sad) forlornness, melancholy * (event causing sadness) misfortune, woe

    sadly

    English

    Adverb

    (en-adv)
  • In a sad manner; sorrowfully.
  • Unfortunately, sad to say.
  • :
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 15, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea , passage=Before kick-off, a section of Chelsea's support sadly let themselves and their club down by noisily interrupting the silence held in memory of the Hillsborough disaster and for Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, who collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack during a Serie B game on Saturday.}}
  • (label) Deeply, completely.
  • *:
  • *:By my feythe sayd syre launcelot in that pauelione wil I lodge alle this nyghte / and soo there he alyghte doune and tayed his hors to the pauelione / and there he vnarmed hym / and there he fond a bedde / and layd hym theryn / and felle on slepe sadly

    • Usage notes

    In sense of “unfortunately”, most often used either in the collocation “sadly mistaken” or as a (sentence adverb). See discussion of sentence modifiers at (hopefully) and (regretfully).

    Synonyms

    * (in a sad manner) (l), (l), (l), (l) (various terms for particular shades of sadness) * (unfortunately) (l), (l), (l), (l), (l)