poor thing!; what a pity!
An interjection expressing sympathy or pity toward someone or something. Often used when seeing someone in a pitiable situation.
Seeing the puppy shivering in the rain, she said, "Poor thing!"
I heard he failed the exam again. What a pity.
かわいそう is the adjective meaning 'pitiful' or 'poor', used in sentences like かわいそうな子 (a poor child). かわいそうに is the interjection form, used as an exclamation.
Ateji kanji spelling; rarely used in modern writing.
Variant ateji spelling; even less common than 可哀想に.
Mixed kanji-kana spelling; occasionally seen but not standard.
Derived from the adjective かわいそう (pitiful), which itself comes from かわいい (cute, pitiable) + そう (seeming). The interjection かわいそうに uses the adverbial form に.