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Worry vs Pity - What's the difference?

worry | pity |

In lang=en terms the difference between worry and pity

is that worry is to cause concern or anxiety while pity is to feel pity for (someone or something).

As verbs the difference between worry and pity

is that worry is to seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf while pity is to feel pity for (someone or something).

As nouns the difference between worry and pity

is that worry is a strong feeling of anxiety while pity is (uncountable) a feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

As an interjection pity is

short form of what a pity.

worry

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.
    • Your dog’s been worrying sheep again.
  • To harass; to irritate or distress.
    • The President was worried into military action by persistent advisors.
  • Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress.
    • Your tone of voice worries me.
  • To be troubled, to give way to mental anxiety.
    • Stop worrying about your test, it’ll be fine.
  • (transitive, obsolete, except in Scots) To strangle.
  • To cause concern or anxiety.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=That worries the government, which fears that environmental activism could become the foundation for more general political opposition.}}

    Synonyms

    * (trouble mentally) fret

    Noun

    (worries)
  • A strong feeling of anxiety.
  • :
  • An instance or cause of such a feeling.
  • :

    • Derived terms

    * worried * worrisome

    pity

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pitty (obsolete)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
    • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hehas no more pity in him than a dog.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, p.5:
    • The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offendedis, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty .
  • (countable) Something regrettable.
    • It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
  • * Laurence Sterne
    • It was a thousand pities .
  • * Addison
    • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
  • (obsolete) piety
    • (Wyclif)

    Synonyms

    * (mercy) ruth * (something regrettable) shame

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel pity for (someone or something).
  • * Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
    • Like as a father pitieth' his children, so the Lord ' pitieth them that fear him.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.11:
    • She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
    • It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

    Interjection

  • Short form of what a pity.

    • Synonyms

    * shame, what a pity, what a shame

    Derived terms

    * piteous * pitiable * pitiful * self-pity * what a pity ----