pathos

• agony
• anguish
• dolor
• gravity
• grief
• heartache
• heartbreak
• misery
• seriousness
• soberness
• solemnity
• solemnness
• somberness
• sorrow
• torment
• torture
• tribulation
• woe

• absurdity
• amusement
• comedy
• comic
• comicality
• drollery
• drollness
• enjoyment
• fun
• funniness
• hilariousness
• humor
• humorousness
• irony
• laughableness
• ludicrousness
• pleasure
• richness
• ridiculousness
• uproariousness

• noun
  1. The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
  2. A writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.
  3. An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
  4. In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
  5. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

• The film’s ending was filled with pathos that moved the audience to tears.
• His speech combined humor and pathos to powerful effect.
• The artist’s work captures the pathos of human suffering.
• She spoke with such pathos that everyone felt her pain.
• The novel is remembered for its blend of irony and pathos.

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