bemoan
Americanverb (used with object)
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bemoans,
present (3rd person singular)
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bemoaned,
past participle, past
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bemoaning
present participle
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to express distress or grief over; lament.
to bemoan one's fate.
-
to regard with regret or disapproval.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bemoansimple
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bemoanssimple
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have bemoanedperfect
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has bemoanedperfect
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am bemoaningprogressive
-
are bemoaningprogressive
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is bemoaningprogressive
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have been bemoaningperfect progressive
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has been bemoaningperfect progressive
Past
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bemoanedsimple
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had bemoanedperfect
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was bemoaningprogressive
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were bemoaningprogressive
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had been bemoaningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bemoan
before 1000; be- + moan; replacing bemene, Middle English bimenen, Old English bimǣnan ( bi- be- + mǣnan to moan)
Explanation
Some people love to complain, don't they? Complainers also tend to bemoan things, which can be translated to "Oh no! Why me?" A more casual expression for bemoan is to moan and groan. If you step in a puddle and get your shoes wet, you might moan and groan about, or bemoan, your bad luck to whoever will listen. Just about any bad or annoying thing can be bemoaned. In fact, people love to bemoan how much other people are moaning and groaning about things!
Vocabulary lists containing bemoan
100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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This Week in Words: October 1 - 6, 2017
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Consumer groups heard all of these companies bemoan how tariffs on China and other Asian countries, in particular, meant they would have no choice but to raise prices.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
Many professors bemoan cheating but tend to do little about it, often claiming that students who cheat only harm themselves by not really learning the material.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
Today, however, we come not to bemoan the bad times but celebrate the good times, for the Angels and Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
Many bemoan the interruption of the international break – Liverpool are currently struggling so badly they may just welcome the chance to clear their heads.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2025
There were several others, among them Kali’s, and she came to bemoan the result.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
She's having to rely on her parents to help out, but bemoans the need for them to do so.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
Wall Street bemoans Mamdani’s win, Trump threatens Jay Powell again, and the Bezos-Sanchez wedding is flashy and splashy.
From Slate ● Jun. 28, 2025
Brinkley bemoans the present colonization of the fashion space by digital media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2025
She bemoans that she had to pay for her interpreter to manage treatment.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2025
One critic wrote a great many pages in which he bemoans the dreary and sordid family-life of the man who wrote the "Ode to the West Wind."
From The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions Joints In Our Social Armour by James Runciman
One artist bemoaned that she had to “flatten and suppress her real self” to engage her audience.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Some see a dark irony: Five years ago, an exasperated President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bemoaned that a corrupt customs regime had allowed organized crime to take over land and maritime ports of entry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
They bemoaned the condition of roads, which are pockmarked with potholes, as well as the pace of development, which has accelerated in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
But others in the bloc have bemoaned the lack of progress on a long-stalled five-point peace plan that has formed the basis of engagement.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
“When I left the military, I sort of lost my way,” Taske bemoaned in a thick Aussie accent.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
"There is no point in bemoaning what is going on" one says phlegmatically, "Andy Burnham's inherited this vexed issue that our jails are full, it's in the nature of being PM."
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
In a video, Dr. Becky marks Employee Appreciation Week by bemoaning how uncelebrated parents’ wins often are.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
But she wishes some of those fans had been shopping at her stores on a monthly or quarterly basis in recent years rather than now bemoaning what’s been lost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
"The Olympics only happen every four years and only a very few times in a career," he said, bemoaning the lack of "Olympic atmosphere" in Bormio.
From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026
The transformation of the Khumbu culture is certainly not all for the best, but I didn’t hear many Sherpas bemoaning the changes.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
