na-adjective, noun
Literary, rare word describing a deeply sorrowful or pitiful state. Not used in everyday conversation.
彼の悽愴たる境遇に胸が痛んだ。
My heart ached at his miserable circumstances.
戦争の悽愴な現実を描いた小説。
A novel depicting the dreadful reality of war.
The exact derivation is uncertain; the kanji 悽 (sorrowful) and 愴 (grieved) combine to suggest deep sadness, but the word is not a productive compound in modern Japanese.