What does grieve mean?
Grieve means to experience or express deep sorrow, most often in response to a death or significant loss. It is used both intransitively, as in “to grieve for the dead,” and transitively, when a person or event causes sorrow to others: “Her absence grieved the entire community.” The word has a formal, literary tone and appears frequently in funeral notices, obituaries, memorial writing, and historical accounts of war or disaster. Although it can describe any serious emotional loss, it is especially associated with bereavement and mourning. The related noun grief names the sorrow itself, while grieving is the usual gerund and deeply grieved is a common adjective describing someone in a state of intense sorrow. Grieve is powerful because it combines a private feeling with a broader tradition of public mourning and remembrance.
verbTo feel or express deep sorrow, especially because of a death, separation, or serious loss. It can also mean to cause grief or sorrow to someone else.
- To feel or express deep sorrow, usually because of a death, separation, or other significant loss.
- To cause grief or sorrow to someone else, as when a loss or event grieves a person or community.
"She continued to grieve for the husband who had died decades earlier."
"The family gathered to grieve for the young man who had died in the accident."
"Her absence greatly grieved his friends, who had relied on her advice and support."
Grieve traces back to the same Latin root as gravity: both ideas originally suggested something heavy and weighty.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does grieve come from?
Grieve developed through Old French from Latin gravis, meaning “heavy,” and in its earlier English senses carried the idea of being weighed down by sorrow. The modern verb gradually came to mean “to feel or express grief.” Related English words such as grief, grievance, grievous, and grave preserve connections to the same ancient root and its sense of heaviness or seriousness.
Related word forms
How grieve is actually used
Grieve is a formal and literary word, especially common in eulogies, obituaries, and expressions of bereavement. In everyday speech, mourn is often more natural, while grieve over is common for a loss and grieve for often means mourn for someone who has died.
Easily confused with grieve
Grief is the noun for the feeling of deep sorrow, whereas grieve is the verb for experiencing or expressing that feeling.