惨憺(さんたん)

さんたん
adjective-taru
wretched; miserable; disastrous
1. wretched; miserable; disastrous; pitiful
A literary たる-adjective describing a state, result, or condition that is grim, devastating, or pitiable. Almost always appears in the prenominal form 惨憺(さんたん)たる or in the set compound 苦心(くしん)惨憺(さんたん).
惨憺(さんたん)たる結果(けっか)に終(お)わった。
It ended in a disastrous result.
現場(げんば)は惨憺(さんたん)たる有様(ありさま)だった。
The scene was a wretched sight.
苦心(くしん)惨憺(さんたん)の末(すえ)、ようやく完成(かんせい)にこぎつけた。
After painstaking effort, we finally managed to complete it.

A literary たる-adjective derived from Classical Japanese. In modern usage it appears almost exclusively in the prenominal form 惨憺(さんたん)たる or in the fixed compound 苦心(くしん)惨憺(さんたん).

COMMON COLLOCATIONS:

  • 惨憺(さんたん)たる結果(けっか): disastrous results
  • 惨憺(さんたん)たる有様(ありさま): a wretched state
  • 惨憺(さんたん)たる光景(こうけい): a grim scene
  • 苦心(くしん)惨憺(さんたん): painstaking effort; toiling agonizingly

USAGE:
Never used as a plain predicate (×惨憺(さんたん)だ is unnatural). Modern speakers use 悲惨(ひさん) or ひどい in everyday conversation; 惨憺(さんたん) sounds formal or literary.

SIMILAR WORDS:

  • 悲惨(ひさん): tragic; miserable — much more common in everyday speech
  • 惨(みじ)め: miserable; pitiful — focuses on personal humiliation
  • ひどい: terrible; awful — colloquial, very general
general
Added 2026.5.11 16:40
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