grief
/ɡɹiːf/noun, verb
grief is spelled G-R-I-E-F: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, grief means “Suffering, hardship” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of grief is griefs or grieves.
How many letters and syllables are in grief?
| Letters | 5: G-R-I-E-F |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is grief?
Grief appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce grief?
- /ɡɹiːf/
Grief has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-grief.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-grief.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of grief
- griefs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- grieves plural
- griefing participle, present
- griefed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does grief mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Suffering, hardship.
The neighbour's teenagers give me grief every time they see me.
- 2
Emotional pain, generally arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness.
She was worn out from so much grief.
- 3
A cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; a trial.
verb
- 1
To deliberately harass and annoy or cause grief to other players of a game in order to interfere with their enjoyment of it; especially, to do this as one’s primary activity in the game, and especially by exploiting game mechanics without using cheats to do so, often through acts of destruction or vandalism.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Grief in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense sadness:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | douleur, peine |
| German | Kummer, Gram, Leid |
| Portuguese | pesar, mágoa, dor |
| Spanish | pesar, pesadumbre, dolor, sufrimiento, pena, calamidad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does grief come from?
From Middle English greef, gref, from Old French grief (“grave, heavy, grievous, sad”), from Latin gravis (“heavy, grievous, sad”). Doublet of grave.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).