What does aggrieved mean?
Aggrieved is an adjective describing someone who feels resentful because they have been treated unfairly or wronged. It carries a strong connotation of justified indignation — an aggrieved person believes a real injury has been done to them, whether to their rights, reputation, or interests. The word appears frequently in legal language, where an "aggrieved party" is one with a legitimate grounds for complaint or a legal claim, but it is also used in everyday speech about slights and injustices at work, in relationships, or in public life. It derives ultimately from the Latin gravis, meaning heavy, via Old French grever, to burden — so to be aggrieved is, etymologically, to be weighed down by a wrong. Related words include grieve, grief, and grievance. Because it signals that the sense of injury is serious rather than trivial, aggrieved is a precise and useful word for describing formal complaints as well as deep personal resentment.
Feeling or showing resentment at having been treated unfairly; wronged.
"He was aggrieved that his ideas had been taken without credit."
Often used predicatively after verbs such as feel or become.
Past participle of aggrieve: to have been wronged or treated unjustly.
"The workers claimed they had been aggrieved by the company's sudden policy change."
"Aggrieved" comes from the same Latin root as "grave" — literally meaning burdened with a heavy wrong.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of aggrieved
Aggrieved comes from the verb aggrieve, which entered English from Anglo-Norman and Old French agrever, itself derived from Latin aggravare, "to make heavier," based on gravis, "heavy." It thus shares its root with grieve, grief, grievous, and aggravate. The adjective form, originally simply the past participle of aggrieve, became established in English by the late Middle Ages and took on its modern sense of feeling wronged or resentful, particularly in legal usage.
Related word forms
How aggrieved is actually used
Formal to neutral register; common in legal contexts and in describing justified indignation. It implies the person believes the unfair treatment is real, not merely imagined.
Easily confused with aggrieved
Grieved means feeling sorrow over a loss, while aggrieved means feeling resentment at being treated unfairly.