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
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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
The return of the wolf in California has been met with joy by conservationists, who delight in the improbable population rebound, and with fury by ranchers who bemoan the toll on their cattle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
For every moment of glory, there is a hard-luck story, a nation left to bemoan their misfortune and the injustices that have led to their downfall.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Around the same time Andrew appeared to bemoan life in damp Britain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
But I didn’t bemoan the loss of my free time.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Sheinbaum regularly bemoans what she views as “fake news” maligning her leadership.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
He approves of strengthening some local restrictions but bemoans the "terrible cost" and wonders "for HOW LONG?"
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025
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
She bemoans that she had to pay for her interpreter to manage treatment.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2025
As he lies by the camp-fire, he bemoans his hard lot and wishes he had been left to die.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
De Zerbi bemoaned Tottenham's decision-making with Marmoush a culprit, blazing over in the second half with Andy Robertson on an overlap and Mohammed Kudus waiting for a far-post tap in.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
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
Ten kilometres away, Edzel Baylon, a staffer at the Isla Jardin del Mar resort, bemoaned a newly changed landscape that spelled trouble for a destination that touted a white sand beach holiday experience.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 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
A father who lives next to a golf course is bemoaning the number of wayward balls that hit his home and says a child could end up in a coma if they were hit.
From BBC ● May 28, 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
Mark Joseph Stern: The speech is ostensibly bemoaning the progressive movement of the early 20th century, but the New Republic’s Matt Ford has a fantastic piece about how his history is completely wrong.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 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
He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
