mourn
Americanverb (used without object)
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mourns,
present (3rd person singular)
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mourned,
past participle, past
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mourning
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
mourns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mourned,
past participle, past
-
mourning
present participle
-
to feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore.
-
to grieve or lament over (the dead).
-
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)
Synonym Usage
See grieve.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mournsimple
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mournssimple
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have mournedperfect
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has mournedperfect
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am mourningprogressive
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are mourningprogressive
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is mourningprogressive
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have been mourningperfect progressive
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has been mourningperfect progressive
Past
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mournedsimple
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had mournedperfect
-
was mourningprogressive
-
were mourningprogressive
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had been mourningperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
"There is no need to mourn for me," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Charles and Caroline mourn their part in that displacement; they set out for Kansas with the best of intentions, lured by false advertisements of “free” land that never was.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
The final act, during which the friends gather to mourn the death of one of their group, concludes on a deeply affecting note that justifies the expansive length.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
“We mourn alongside his family, and we remain committed to bringing him home.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Someone should mourn him, even if for a moment.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
The Argentine Football Association said it "deeply mourns with sadness and sorrow the passing of Jorge Messi, father of our captain and emblem, Lionel Messi".
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
“The noble art of ballyhoo, which had flourished so successfully in the nineteen-twenties, had lost something of its vigor,” he mourns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Observed on the last Monday of May each year, Memorial Day honors and mourns the military personnel who died both during wartime and times of peace.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
Her melodramatic sorrow at her stilted relationship with Alexis is palpable even as she mourns her daughter’s unwillingness to join her on a wine tasting tour in France . . . when Alexis was seven.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2026
"The only puzzle is what you might have offered for his allegiance. The prince is a sentimental man, and he still mourns his sister Elia and her sweet babe."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
On the day of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, Faruqi had offered condolences to those who mourned for the queen in a social media post.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Graham as one of Israel’s strongest friends in Washington and mourned the loss of a close personal friend.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Juan Antonio Rodriguez, a 71-year-old colonel in the interior ministry, mourned the loss of one of the last members of Cuba's old guard.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
They mourned the loss of entertainment industry jobs and despaired over homeless people living in squalor.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
It had ushered Peach into the world, and it mourned her when Grace got home from the hospital.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
Colombia on Wednesday declared three days of mourning for victims of an earthquake that demolished buildings in the west of the country, killing more than 200 people.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
A period of mourning has been declared in Tatarstan.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Armed relatives fired repeated volleys into the air, a customary gesture of mourning in many Arab communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, in towns where Lindsey Graham grew up and lived, friends and neighbors are mourning the senator who never stopped coming home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The house he had planned to spend a night in, that of his friend Admetus, a king in Thessaly, was a place of deep mourning when he came to it although he did not know.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
