mourn
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore.
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to grieve or lament over (the dead).
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to utter in a sorrowful manner.
verb
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to feel or express sadness for the death or loss of (someone or something)
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(intr) to observe the customs of mourning, as by wearing black
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(tr) to grieve over (loss or misfortune)
Related Words
See grieve.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mourn
First recorded before 900; Middle English mo(u)rnen, Old English murnan; cognate with Old High German mornēn, Old Norse morna, Gothic maurnan
Explanation
To mourn is to grieve for someone who has died, especially a loved one. One of the hardest experiences of childhood is when you mourn the loss of a beloved pet. You can also mourn for things that you've lost, not only pets and people who have died. If your local library branch is forced to close, you might mourn its loss, missing being able to walk there from your house. The Old English root word of mourn is murnan, which means not only to mourn, but also to be anxious. Related words include "mourner" and "mournful."
Vocabulary lists containing mourn
Instead of "Said": Words For Sad Speech
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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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.
Hong Kong and Macau were once the only places in China where people could publicly mourn Beijing's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
From Barron's • May 18, 2026
He does not merely mourn his friend; he confronts, for the first time, the intolerable knowledge of his own extinction.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
"When my body stopped working as it should I actually began to mourn my old self," she said.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
“The world is quieter today. But press play on anything he touched, and you will hear exactly why we mourn him, and exactly why we are forever grateful he was here to inspire us.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 2026
His mother it must be, with nymphs her sisters, come from the sea to mourn her son in death.’
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
