grief
French, noun/ɡʁi.jɛf/
grief is spelled G-R-I-E-F (5 letters) and appears 1.2 times per million words in written French, the 28,091st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Grief is a French masculine noun meaning “complaint” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Sujet ou motif de plainte, reproche, blâme”.
What does grief mean in English?
adjective
- 1
archaicgrievous
noun
- 1
masculinecomplaint
- 2
masculinegrief
- 3
masculinegrievance (formal complaint filed with an authority)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui est grave, accablant. 2. Qui est douloureux.
noun: 1. Sujet ou motif de plainte, reproche, blâme. 2. Dommage, tort que l'on subit. 3. Plainte formelle déposée auprès d'une autorité judiciaire.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of grief
- griève feminine
- griefs masculine plural
- grièves feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce grief?
- /ɡʁi.jɛf/
- \ɡʁi.jɛf\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to grief
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is grief in French?
grief appears 1.2 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).