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

Cregger wrote Weapons not to capitalize on that modest triumph, but in a haze of grief over the sudden death of Moore, who fell off a balcony in 2021.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

When the half-century-old neighborhood staple Pizzamania burned to the ground, the Whittier community reacted with an outpouring of grief.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Some of what I most want preserved about Sept. 11 is the shared grief of those first days and the ways ordinary people revealed their humanity under unimaginable circumstances.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

"My grief can't compare to theirs, nor to the officers and staff who've worked closely with Matty and Tom for a long time."

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

All three sisters looked down, filled with an unspoken grief.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 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

I’ve heard people say grief brings you closer, but the griefs he and I carry are so different.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

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

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

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

This notifies our mod team, who will examine the player's behaviour for signs of intentional griefing.

From Nature ● May 17, 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

Related Words

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