grief

Other forms of grief

plural

griefs·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about grief

What does grief mean?

grief means "intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in grief?

grief has 1 syllable: grief. In IPA it is /ˈɡɹif/.

What is another word for grief?

Close synonyms include heartache, heartbreak, brokenheartedness, sorrow. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is grief a common word?

grief is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.