Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Heart-rending, bitterly painful: Describes a feeling of profound sadness, grief, or emotional pain that is sharp, intense, and deeply felt. It often relates to sorrow, disappointment, or pity.
   • Bitter, acrid (in a figurative sense): Used to describe a situation, memory, or emotion that is harsh, distressing, and difficult to accept.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cô ấy cảm thấy chua xót khi nhìn lại quá khứ. (She felt heart-rending pain when looking back at the past.)
  • Đó là một thất bại chua xót đối với cả đội. (That was a bitterly painful failure for the whole team.)
  • Câu chuyện của anh ấy khiến mọi người nghe thấy chua xót. (His story made everyone who heard it feel profound sorrow.)

Advanced Usage

• Often used to modify abstract nouns like (feeling), (pain), (memory), (failure), or (truth) to emphasize their deeply painful nature.
  • sự thật chua xót (the bitter truth)
  • kỷ niệm chua xót (a painful memory)

Variants and Related Words

• Xót xa (adj): Synonymous with , meaning sorrowful, painful, or pitiful. It can sometimes imply a sense of pity or compassion mixed with sorrow.
  • Bà xót xa khi thấy đứa trẻ bị bỏ rơi. (She felt sorrowful pity when she saw the abandoned child.)

Synonyms

• Heart-rending: Causing intense sorrow or distress.
• Bitterly sad: Marked by intense grief or disappointment.
• Painful: Causing emotional hurt.
• Poignant: Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Chua xót lòng: A phrase emphasizing that the pain is felt deeply in one's heart or soul.
  • Lời nói của anh ta khiến tôi chua xót lòng. (His words caused me heart-rending pain.)
• Nỗi đau chua xót: A common collocation meaning "a bitter/painful sorrow."
  • Cô ấy cố quên đi nỗi đau chua xót đó. (She tried to forget that bitter sorrow.)

adj

1. Heart-rending, painfully sad
   • cảnh ngộ chua xót
     a heart-rending plight