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)
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
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was mourningprogressive
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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.
“Many Mourn for Bob” is the first song you’ve explicitly written about your father.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2026
Mourn the workplace that once was, but also think through how you can move forward.
From New York Times • Oct. 28, 2023
"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
We Mourn, we Mourn, that upon some of them at least, we do unto this minute see no better Symptoms.
From The Book of Buried Treasure Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day by Paine, Ralph Delahaye
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.
