What does aggrieve mean?
Aggrieve is a formal verb meaning to cause someone distress, resentment, or a sense of having been wronged. It can describe both emotional harm — making a person feel bitter or injured — and, especially in legal contexts, the violation of someone's rights or legitimate interests. The word appears most often not in its plain verb form but in its participle, "aggrieved," which functions as an adjective describing a person who feels mistreated: an aggrieved employee, an aggrieved customer, or the aggrieved party in a lawsuit. The verb carries a serious, weighty connotation and belongs chiefly to formal, literary, and legal registers rather than everyday conversation. It derives from the Latin aggravare, "to make heavier," via Old French agrever, sharing deep roots with words such as aggravate, grief, and grieve — a lineage that reflects its core sense of imposing a burden of sorrow or injustice upon another person.
verbTo cause someone to feel distressed, resentful, or wronged; to inflict injury or hardship upon a person.
- To cause someone to suffer or feel wronged; to injure or distress a person.
- (Chiefly in legal contexts) To violate a person's rights or interests, giving grounds for grievance.
"The workers felt aggrieved by the sudden cancellation of their benefits."
"She felt deeply aggrieved when her contribution to the project went unacknowledged."
"The court found that the new policy had aggrieved thousands of small landowners."
Despite looking like "aggravate," aggrieve is about people, not problems — it's what happens when a person, not a situation, ends up worse off.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of aggrieve
Aggrieve entered English from Old French agrever, which itself came from the Latin aggravare, meaning "to make heavy" or "to burden." The Latin root gravis means "heavy," the same source behind English words such as grave, gravity, grief, and grieve. The word has been part of English since at least the late Middle Ages, and over time it developed a strong association with legal language, where it describes the wrongful treatment of a person's rights or interests.
Related word forms
How aggrieve is actually used
Formal and somewhat literary in tone; far more common in its participial adjective form "aggrieved" than as a finite verb. Often used in legal writing to describe parties who have been wronged.
Easily confused with aggrieve
"Aggravate" means to make something worse (a situation, illness, or offense), while "aggrieve" means to cause a person distress or a sense of being wronged.