Pathetic means making you feel pity (a pathetic sight) or, in informal and critical use, very bad or embarrassingly weak (a pathetic excuse). It doesn't mean full of noble feeling. A moving speech given with feeling is passionate or emotional, and a speech that is too grand and self-important is pompous.
pathetic: will you get the meaning right?
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a pathetic + excuse/attempt/performance; look/sound + pathetic; it's pathetic + that + clause; passionate, emotional (not pathetic)
- Blaming the traffic is a pathetic excuse when you're late for work every single day.
- The wet kitten looked so pathetic that we took it home and dried it with a towel.
- The team's performance in the first half was pathetic, and some fans left early.
What changed
First versionOur director gave a pathetic speech about the company's future, and everyone applauded.
RevisionOur director gave a passionate speech about the company's future, and everyone applauded.
In several languages a similar word means “moving” or “full of emotion”, which leads to a pathetic speech meant as praise. In English it means “a pitiful, useless speech”, and then it is unclear why everyone applauded. A speech given with strong feeling and conviction is passionate.
The first meaning of pathetic expresses pity: The injured bird looked pathetic. The second expresses contempt: That's pathetic! (“That's a disgrace!”). So calling a person pathetic can easily sound like an insult.
Your turn
When she thanked her parents at the graduation ceremony, her voice was shaking. It was a very ___ moment for the whole family.
Show the answer
emotional — Her voice was shaking with feeling and the moment was touching, so the answer is emotional. Pathetic would mean “a pitiful, embarrassing moment”, as if something had gone badly wrong at the ceremony.
Think of a weak excuse you have heard or made up yourself: at school, at work or at home. Write what happened and why the excuse was pathetic.
When I was twelve, I told my teacher that my little brother had drawn on my homework, which was a pathetic excuse because I don't have a brother.
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