pathos

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow.
• noun The feeling, as of sympathy or pity, so aroused.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun That quality or character, as of a speech, an expression of the countenance, a work of art, etc., which awakens the emotion of pity, compassion, or sympathy; a power or influence that moves or touches the feelings; feeling.
• noun Specifically In art, the quality of the personal, ephemeral, emotional, or sensual, as opposed to that, of the ideal, or ethos.
• noun Suffering.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
• noun The quality or character of those emotions, traits, or experiences which are personal, and therefore restricted and evanescent; transitory and idiosyncratic dispositions or feelings as distinguished from those which are universal and deep-seated in character; -- opposed to ethos.
• noun Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
• noun rhetoric A writer's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions not strictly limited to pity.
• noun literature An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
• noun theology, philosophy In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a style that has the power to evoke feelings
• noun a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
• noun a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow)