Sadness is an emotion that one experiences when faced with an adverse or unhappy situation or sorrowful event like death of a near one, loss of job, poor marks in school or college exams, break up with a friend, etc. Sadness is an emotion that one experiences when faced with an adverse or unhappy situation or sorrowful event like death of a near one, loss of job, poor marks in school or college exams, break up with a friend, etc.