painful vs pitiful

painful

adj
  • Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. 

  • Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person). 

  • Very bad, poor. 

  • Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious. 

pitiful

adj
  • So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity. 

  • Of an amount or number: very small. 

adv
  • In a pitiful manner; pitifully; piteously; pathetically. 

How often have the words painful and pitiful occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )