grief

American  

[greef] / grif /

noun

• griefs
  plural

1. 

   keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

   Synonyms:

   moroseness, melancholy, sadness, misery, woe, heartache, anguish

   Antonyms:

   joy

2. a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow.

---

verb (used with or without object)

griefed, griefing

1. Digital Technology.

   1. (in an online video game) to behave in an unsportsmanlike way or take pleasure in antagonizing (other players).

      I reported the jerk who griefed me yesterday—I hope they ban his account.

   2. to exploit a glitch or execute an online prank that ruins a website or other online experience for (users).

      Posting flashing content to an epilepsy site is taking griefing to a malicious and dangerous extreme.

idioms

1. come to grief, to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble; fail.

   Their marriage came to grief after only two years.

2. good grief, (used as an exclamation of dismay, surprise, or relief ).

   Good grief, it's started to rain again!

grief British  

/ ɡriːf /

noun

1. deep or intense sorrow or distress, esp at the death of someone

2. something that causes keen distress or suffering

3. informal trouble or annoyance

   people were giving me grief for leaving ten minutes early

4. informal to end unsuccessfully or disastrously

5. See tune

---

grief More Idioms  

1. see come to grief; good grief.

---

Usage

What does grief mean? Grief is mental or emotional suffering or distress caused by loss or regret. It’s especially used to refer to the feeling of sorrow and loss from the death of a loved one. People who are overwhelmed by grief are often described as grief-stricken. This kind of grief is most commonly associated with death, but the word can also be used in the context of other situations involving loss, such as a divorce or the loss of a job. The related verb grieve means to mourn—to feel or express intense grief, especially due to a death or loss. The word grief is also used informally to mean trouble or annoyance, as in Please don’t give your mother any grief when she gets home—her day has been hard enough already. Grief is used in the phrase good grief, which is typically used to express alarm or dismay. Grief is also used in the context of online gaming as a slang term that means something similar to the verb sense of troll—to take pleasure in antagonizing others. Example: I can’t imagine the amount of grief you feel from the loss of your mother.

Synonym Usage

See sorrow.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• grieflessness
  noun
• griefless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• griefs
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of grief

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English gref, grief, from Anglo-French gref; see origin at grieve

---

Explanation

Grief means intense sorrow. You feel grief if something terribly sad happens, like if your dog dies or if your childhood sweetheart breaks up with you. The word grief comes from the Latin word gravare, which means to make heavy. Gravare itself comes from the Latin word gravis, which means weighty. So think of grief as a heavy, oppressive sadness. We associate it most often with mourning a loved one's death, but it can follow any kind of loss.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grief griefs griefed griefing

The families also say their grief has been made worse by how police have handled their loved ones' remains and belongings since the fire.

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

He may feel grief and even perhaps guilt as a result of inheriting a large sum of money from an individual who led a modest lifestyle herself.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Although it features a seance, “The Unbelievers,” by Nick Payne, is not truly a ghost story but a drama about the debilitating persistence of grief, and the equally damaging persistence of hope.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie, who visited the crash site in 2020, said a sense of loss and grief had been "keenly felt" in the community.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

But for Lyuba Olkhovskaya’s squadron, the excitement and triumph of that night slowly turned to apprehension, and eventually to grief.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

There are griefs other than antisemitism and racism, she complains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

The tension can be felt in private conversations and encounters — the griefs, the anxieties, the feelings of being in a media fishbowl.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2023

This might be dramatised fiction but the losses and griefs are very real.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2022

“Even in WandaVision — really all of the films I’ve gotten to do — she’s constantly straddling this line and usually her biggest emotive losses or griefs are when something’s born,” Olsen said.

From The Verge ● May 9, 2022

He was remorseless, disillusioned, logical, predatory, fierce, pitiless—but his great jewel of an eye was that of a stricken deer, large, fearful, sensitive and full of griefs.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

I can only say how sincerely I ask pardon for having griefed you.

From The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père

Fake news and misinformation are part of that, as are the traditional griefing techniques of subcultural trolls.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 3, 2016

“Folks who are griefing or trolling feel like they are in a secondary universe that isn’t the same as the real world,” he said.

From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2016

The practice of ruining things for others, originally known as griefing in the online gaming world, has become a sadly abundant element of internet life.

From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2016

Although Lin's efforts are “admirable and likely industry-leading”, the representative says, many games are still “awash with verbal harassment, griefing and overall negative behaviour from teammates and opponents”.

From Nature ● Mar. 29, 2016

"The amount of griefing that goes on for the higher value pledges just isn't worth the amount of money it brings in," he said.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2013

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• agony
• anguish
• bereavement
• despair
• discomfort
• gloom
• heartache
• heartbreak
• melancholy
• misery
• mourning
• pain
• regret
• remorse
• sadness
• sorrow
• trouble
• unhappiness
• woe
• worry

---