grievous
Americanadjective
-
causing grief or great sorrow.
grievous news.
- Synonyms:
- painful, sorrowful, sad, tragic, heartbreaking
- Antonyms:
- delightful
-
full of or expressing grief; sorrowful.
a grievous cry.
-
characterized by great pain or suffering; severe.
grievous bodily harm;
a grievous injury.
-
having serious effects; grave.
a grievous mistake;
grievous faults.
-
extremely or shockingly wicked, cruel, brutal, etc.; atrocious.
a grievous offense against morality;
grievous crimes.
-
to incur grievous expenses.
adjective
-
very severe or painful
a grievous injury
-
very serious; heinous
a grievous sin
-
showing or marked by grief
a grievous cry
-
causing great pain or suffering
a grievous attack
Other Word Forms
- grievously adverb
- grievousness noun
- nongrievous adjective
- nongrievousness noun
- overgrievous adjective
- overgrievousness noun
Etymology
Origin of grievous
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English grevous, from Old French grevo(u)s; grieve, -ous
Explanation
If something is called grievous, you better take it seriously. Grievous is used to describe horrible things like tragedies or crimes. If you have a grievous wound, a band aid simply won't do. Grievous is derived from the noun grief, which means "sadness." When something is grievous, therefore, it's not just bad, but so bad that it causes unusually intense shock or sadness. It's often used to describe crimes and other bad deeds that go beyond mere criminality and into the world of cruelty. For example, it's harmful to steal from someone; it's grievous to steal from them and then, having stolen their stuff, beat them up or kill them.
Vocabulary lists containing grievous
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 6
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A Wrinkle in Time
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Antigone
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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.
And it delivers a blunt message, warning that this executive order would inflict a grievous, possibly lethal moral harm on the nation.
From Slate • Feb. 27, 2026
The most grievous incident: someone had thrown garbage in a toilet on the carrier’s lowest deck.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026
Aside from medical ailments, you may sense that long-ago unresolved issues — ruptured relationships, grievous losses, life-altering decisions — undermine your well-being in subtle but significant ways.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 7, 2026
Scenes like this are tricky enough to pull off tastefully in dramatized films, but here, the sequence feels impossibly grievous.
From Salon • Oct. 21, 2025
"The little birds sing a grievous song today," he said as he seated himself.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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.
