give someone grief

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"give-someone-grief" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“give someone grief” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cause pain to someone.

Corpus desk

Index EN-give-someone-grief · give someone grief · English

give someone grief · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 18 letters
  • VOW-8 8 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "G" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for give someone grief
PropertyValue
Headwordgive someone grief
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “give someone grief” in English

give someone grieffalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

give someone grief is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

give someone grief has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is give someone grief, spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -G-R-I-E-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cause pain to someone.
  2. 2
    To hassle or abuse someone.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how give someone grief appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Her elbow has been giving her grief.
  2. Fred was giving me grief over the money I owed him.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "give someone grief"?
"give someone grief" is spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -G-R-I-E-F.
What does "give someone grief" mean?
As a verb, "give someone grief" means: To cause pain to someone.
What language does "give someone grief" come from?
"give someone grief" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list