These words may be applied to the personal experience of physical and mental pain or depression or to the things which cause the pain or depression. They are also used describe things that are below average in character, condition or performance. When a physical, mental or environmental state causes great suffering or unhappiness, it can be referred to as miserable .

• I’ve been struggling along all day with a miserable headache; It is sometimes difficult to acknowledge that another person’s lot may be more miserable than one’s own.

The word also suggests something that is worthless or of inferior quality: to waste an evening at a miserable play. Dismal describes something that lacks cheer or joy, and also characterizes the gloomy, depressed feelings that such a thing can provoke: a dismal day, with threatening clouds hanging in the sky; feeling dismal after reading a newspaper report of the latest bushfires. In referring to something that is below average, dismal hints at calamity or disaster: a new business enterprise that turned out to be a dismal failure.

Sorry and unhappy describe unpleasant mental states. Sorry connotes the kind of sadness, major or minor, that is produced by loss, injury, misfortune or the like. It may be aroused by one’s own troubles or those of a friend, and it is often combined with a feeling of regret.

• I’m sorry to see my long-service leave end – it’s been a pleasant holiday.

Unhappy can be a weaker word than sorry if it merely indicates the absence of happiness: unhappy about having to go to a dull party. But it can characterize a more lasting state of discontent: a profoundly unhappy man with no friends and no interests other than his work. When used critically, sorry often gives an indication of pity, ridicule or concern.

• What a sorry spectacle he made of himself when he got drunk; The world is certainly in a sorry state.

Unhappy is less general and not as strong as sorry when it is used in criticism to mean unfortunate, unlucky, not tactful or inappropriate: an unhappy choice of words.

Wretched is stronger in tone than either sorry or unhappy in its indication of a severely distressed mental state, but is interchangeable with miserable in reference to personal misfortune or physical discomfort: a wretched cripple who was forced to beg in the streets; He was feeling wretched as a result of a recurrent back problem. When used to describe quality, ability or performance, the word is strong again in meaning unsatisfactory or worthless: The performance was spoilt because the soprano was in such wretched voice.