mourn

American  

[mawrn, mohrn] / mɔrn, moʊrn /

verb (used without object)

1. to feel or express sorrow or grief.

   Synonyms:

   bemoan, bewail

   Antonyms:

   rejoice, laugh

2. to grieve or lament for the dead.

3. to show the conventional or usual signs of sorrow over a person's death.

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verb (used with object)

1. to feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore.

2. to grieve or lament over (the dead).

3. to utter in a sorrowful manner.

mourn British  

/ mɔːn /

verb

1. to feel or express sadness for the death or loss of (someone or something)

2. (intr) to observe the customs of mourning, as by wearing black

3. (tr) to grieve over (loss or misfortune)

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Related Words

See grieve.

Other Word Forms

• overmourn
  verb
• unmourned
  adjective

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."

Example Sentences

"Mourn the dead, and fight like hell for the living," read one banner raised inside the building.

From Reuters • Oct. 28, 2023

“After the first death, there is no other,” Dylan Thomas observed in his majestic elegy, “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 26, 2023

Mourn what you had, but don’t try to resurrect something that wasn’t really there.

From Slate • Jan. 13, 2020

There is a literature dedicated to fire—think of Dante, or Dylan Thomas’s “Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London”—and there is a literature consumed by fire quite literally.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 2, 2019

Mourn not for me, my dear parents, as those who have no hope.

From The Iron Furnace Slavery and Secession by Aughey, John H.

Related Words

• ache
• agonize
• bemoan
• complain
• cry
• deplore
• fret
• grieve
• lament
• moan
• regret
• sob
• wail
• weep
• yearn