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POLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

żal.

grief, regret, sorrow (emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing)

3 characters1 syllables approx.Polski language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈʐal/
  1. grief, regret, sorrow (emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing)

    inanimate · masculine
    żal po czyjejś śmierci
  2. grief, regret, sorrow (remorse after committing something wrong)

    inanimate · masculine
    żal za grzechy
  3. grievance, grudge (animosity or ill will against someone or something caused by disappointment)

    inanimate · masculine
    żal do ojca
  4. complaints, grievances, lamentations, regrets (statements in which someone laments or complains about something)

    in-plural · inanimate · masculine
    wysłuchiwać żalów
  5. żale (lyrical work in Old Polish literature expressing complaints about fate, pain due to some misfortune, or grief after someone's death)

    historical · in-plural · inanimate · masculine
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Balto-Slavic *gḗlˀis, *gḗlˀāˀ Proto-Slavic *žalь Polish żal Inherited from Proto-Slavic *žalь.

verb/ˈʐal/
  1. to grieve, to pity (to feel sympathy for someone; to feel sorry for someone)

    defective · imperfective · intransitive
    Żal mi jego dzieci.
  2. to regret (to feel sadness about something one has or has not done, or about what has passed and what one has lost)

    defective · imperfective · intransitive
    Żal nam stąd wyjeżdżać, ale mamy pełno rzeczy do zrobienia u siebie.
  3. to have a sense of wasting something that is important and valuable, and which one would like to see put to good use

    defective · imperfective · intransitive
    Żal mi czasu na dyskutowanie z tobą, i tak nie zrozumiesz.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Balto-Slavic *gḗlˀis, *gḗlˀāˀ Proto-Slavic *žalь Polish żal Inherited from Proto-Slavic *žalь.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.