# sorry

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈsɒɹ.i/ · frequency rank #682

## Definitions
1. Regretful or apologetic for one's actions.
2. Grieved or saddened, especially by the loss of something or someone.
3. Poor, pitifully sad or regrettable.
4. Pathetic; contemptibly inadequate.

## Etymology
From Middle English sory, from Old English sāriġ (“feeling or expressing grief, sorry, grieved, sorrowful, sad, mournful, bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairag, from Proto-Germanic *sairagaz (“sad”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂yro (“hard, rough, painful”). Cognate with Scots sairie (“sad, grieved”), Saterland Frisian seerich (“sore, inflamed”), West Frisian searich (“sad, sorry”), Low German serig (“sick, scabby”), German dialectal sehrig (“sore, sad, painful”), Swedish sårig. By surface analysis, sor(e) + -y. Unrelated to sorrow despite the similarity in form and meaning.

## Easily confused with
- **soy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-soy)
- **sry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sry)
- **sort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sort)
- **sour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sour)
- **story** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-story)
- **sorts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sorts)
- **spray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-spray)
- **stray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-stray)
- **sorta** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sorta)
- **surly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-surly)
- **surry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-surry)
- **Surrey** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-surrey)
- **storey** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-storey)
- **stormy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-stormy)
- **starry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-starry)
- **sporty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sorry-vs-sporty)
- **sor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sor-vs-sorry)
- **Sony** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sony-vs-sorry)
- **sore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sore-vs-sorry)
- **soar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soar-vs-sorry)

## Common misspellings (6)
`osrry`, `sorryy`, `sory`, `soryr`, `srory`, `ssorry`

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