''lamentable'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260901174310-00-⌔

lamentable - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

lamentable (comparative more lamentable, superlative most lamentable)

• Causing sorrow, distress or regret; deplorable, pitiful or distressing.
  • ✤ In what a lamentable caſe were I,
    If Nature had not giuen me wiſedomes lore?¹
  • ✤ Moreover, in view of the lamentable present indecision of the Government in regard to electrification, the large-scale building of diesel power may prove to have been a farseeing move after all.²

Etymology

From Middle English lamentable, from Middle French lamentable, from Latin lāmentābilis (“full of sorrow, mournful; deplorable”), from lāmentor (“lament”), from lāmenta (“wailing, weeping”).³ By surface analysis, lament +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ləˈmɛn.tə.bəl/, /ˈlæm.ən.tə.bəl/
• Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-01.

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Footnotes

1. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv: ↩

2. 1961 February, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 86: ↩

3. “lamentable, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩