Synonyms for grief

Most common

sorrow · sadness · heartbreak · misery · anguish · pain · affliction

Synonyms by meaning

Noun

Antonyms

joy, happiness, mirth

All antonyms of grief →

Definitions

1. n. 1

   Suffering, hardship.

   The neighbour's teenagers give me grief every time they see me.

2. n. 2

   Emotional pain, generally arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness.

   The betrayal caused Jeff grief.

3. n. 3

   A cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; a trial.

Related words

Word family

griefful grief-stricken grief-struck

Phrases

give someone grief good grief climate grief come to grief ecological grief grief tech grief technology

Forms

Plural

griefs → sorrows, sadnesses, heartbreaks, miseries…

Choose the right word

Example sentences

• misery Tom blamed all his misery on planned obsolescence.
• sadness There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes.
• sorrow To my sorrow, my father cannot attend the meeting.
• heartbreak Mary was my first crush and my first heartbreak.
• pain By and large, women can bear pain better than men.
• anguish The source of my anguish is your lack of loyalty.

Popularity over time

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters

pain¹

5 letters

agony³

6 letters

misery³, sorrow², mishap²

7 letters

trouble², tragedy³, sadness², remorse², anguish², torment²

8 letters

distress², mourning², hardship², vexation

9 letters

suffering³, adversity⁴, heartache², grievance², dejection

10 letters

depression³, difficulty⁴, bitterness³, heartbreak², melancholy⁴, affliction³

11 letters

unhappiness⁴, tribulation⁴, lamentation, melancholia, despondency⁴

12 letters

wretchedness

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (agony³ = 3 syllables).