sorry

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   without merit

   a sorry horse

2. 2
   adj

   Regretful or apologetic for one's actions.

   I am sorry I stepped on your toes. It was an accident.

3. 3
   adj

   Grieved or saddened, especially by the loss of something or someone.

   I feel sorry for you, about your exam results.

4. 4
   adj

   Poor, pitifully sad or regrettable.

   The storm left his garden in a sorry state.

5. 5
   adj

   Pathetic; contemptibly inadequate.

   Bob is a sorry excuse for a football player.

6. 6
   intj

   Expresses regret, remorse, or sorrow.

   Sorry! I didn't see that you were on the phone.

7. 7
   intj

   Said as a request to excuse one's unintentional behaviors.

   Oops! Sorry!

8. 8
   intj

   Said as a request to pass somebody.

   Sorry! Coming through!

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.