grieve
GREEV
/ɡriːv/
To feel or express intense sorrow, especially after a serious loss or death.
An active emotional process of working through deep loss.
The story behind the word. From Latin 'gravis' meaning heavy (which also gave us 'gravity' and 'grave'). Grieving literally feels like carrying a heavy physical weight on one's heart.
Word relationships
- mourn: Mourn focuses slightly more on outward rituals and social expression of loss.
- lament: Lament emphasizes vocal or written expression of sorrow.
- rejoice: Rejoice means to feel or show great joy and delight.
- celebrate: Celebrate means to perform a social action of joy and honor.
Commonly confused with
- aggrieve: Aggrieve means to injure or treat unjustly (as in 'an aggrieved party').
Word family
- grief (noun): Deep mental distress caused by loss.
- grievance (noun): A real or imagined cause for complaint.
- grievous (adjective): Causing severe suffering or harm.
Collocations
- grieve deeply
- grieve for someone
- grieve a loss
- time to grieve
Idioms & expressions
- grieve one's heart out
Example sentences
- "Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o'er-wrought heart and bids it break." Literature quote (Shakespeare, Macbeth)
- "It takes time to grieve properly after losing a lifelong friend." Personal essay
Memory hook
GRIEF weighs heavy like GRAVITY on a GRAVE. Heavy weight on the heart.
When not to use
Do not use for superficial regrets like missing a bus.
Fun facts
- The words 'gravity', 'grave', 'grievance', and 'grieve' all stem from the same root meaning 'heavy'.
Related words
Explore more words
condolence, solace, remembrance, devastation, remorseful, pine
Also appears in
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