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.

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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

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grief More Idioms  

1. see come to grief; good grief.

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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

You’re taking part in their grief but we’re also celebrating him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

As difficult and exhausting as mourning rituals can be, they create a structure that prevents us from ignoring grief.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

The deaths of the trio sparked an outpouring of grief and condemnation in Australia and the United States.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

Teenagers who have experienced loss have said creating art and talking to other young people has helped them process grief.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Their mother had become old with grief, but she cried with happiness when she saw her children again.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer

He succeeds in showing their interior world, immersing us in the tensions and pleasures, griefs and passions of their days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026

The conversation ranges from what people think constitutes “a good death” to griefs they carry: old and new, individual and collective.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 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

Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

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

In a blog post after Tay’s griefing, Peter Lee, the vice president of Microsoft Research, vowed to “work toward contributing to an internet that represents the best, not the worst, of humanity.”

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

And so their griefing of other players is not necessarily done out of meanness, but more out of a sense of exploration, a way of finding their footing in an uncertain new universe.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 3, 2013

Related Words

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