saudade
4 synonyms for saudade, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A deep, bittersweet longing for someone or something absent, coloured by the knowledge that it may never come back and by pleasure at having known it at all.
Synonyms
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
How to use saudade
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
matar a saudade
full of saudade
a sense of saudade
A borrowed word; literary in English, entirely everyday in Portuguese.
Etymology
A Portuguese noun with no exact English equivalent; its earlier history is disputed, though it is often traced to Latin solitatem "solitude".
Full origin of saudade →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between saudade and nostalgia?
Nostalgia looks back at a past you remember fondly. Saudade is aimed at an absence in the present: a person, a place or even a life you never had, which you long for now. Saudade also carries a sweetness inside the ache that nostalgia does not require.
Is there an English word for saudade?
There is no single one, which is why the Portuguese word gets borrowed. Longing comes closest, but it lacks the specific mixture of loss, love and acceptance that saudade carries in Portuguese and Brazilian culture.
