grief

/grif/

/grif/

Other forms: griefs

Grief means intense sorrow. You feel grief if something terribly sad happens, like if your dog dies or if your childhood sweetheart breaks up with you.

The word grief comes from the Latin word gravare, which means to make heavy. Gravare itself comes from the Latin word gravis, which means weighty. So think of grief as a heavy, oppressive sadness. We associate it most often with mourning a loved one's death, but it can follow any kind of loss.

Definitions of grief

1. noun

   intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death)
   synonyms: brokenheartedness, heartache, heartbreak

   types:

   dolor, dolour

   (poetry) painful grief

   type of:

   sorrow

   an emotion of great sadness associated with loss or bereavement
2. noun

   something that causes great unhappiness
   “her death was a great grief to John”

   synonyms: sorrow

   type of:

   negative stimulus

   a stimulus with undesirable consequences