# sorrow

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈsɒɹ.əʊ/ · frequency rank #10,772

## Definitions
1. unhappiness, woe
2. (usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness.

## Etymology
From Middle English sorwe, sorow, sorewe, from Old English sorg, sorh (“care, anxiety, sorrow, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sorgu, from Proto-Germanic *surgō (compare West Frisian soarch, Dutch zorg, German Sorge, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sorg), from Proto-Indo-European *swergʰ- (“watch over, worry; be ill, suffer”) (compare Old Irish serg (“sickness”), Tocharian B sark (“sickness”), Lithuanian sirgti (“be sick”), Sanskrit सूर्क्षति (sū́rkṣati, “worry”). Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not historically related to sorry and sore.

## Easily confused with
- **sorry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorrow-vs-sorry)
- **sparrow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorrow-vs-sparrow)
- **sorrows** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorrow-vs-sorrows)
- **Soros** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soros-vs-sorrow)
- **sorrel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorrel-vs-sorrow)

## Common misspellings (7)
`osrrow`, `sororw`, `sorow`, `sorroww`, `sorrwo`, `srorow`, `ssorrow`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sorrow