What does grief mean?
Word: Grief
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Grief means very deep sadness, especially after losing someone or something you love.
Synonyms: sorrow, sadness, heartache, misery
Antonyms: happiness, delight
How do you spell grief?
Syllables: grief
Tricky part: The long ee sound is spelt ie, with the i first. Students often swap them and write greif, or write greef by sound.
Watch out for: greif, greef, grife
Memory tip: Think 'I feel grief': the I comes first in the sentence, and the i comes before the e in the word.
Idioms and Phrases
- come to grief: to fail or go badly wrong Example: "Our plan to cross the stream on a raft came to grief when the rope snapped."
- good grief: something people say when they are surprised or annoyed Example: "Good grief, you have eaten all the biscuits already."
Grief in a sentence
Example 1: The whole team felt grief when their favourite coach moved to another city.
Example 2: Anu's grief at leaving her old school lasted only until she made new friends.
Example 3: She could not hide her grief when her dog went missing.
Fun Fact
Grief came into English from Old French and goes back to Latin gravis, 'heavy', the same root that gave us gravity. Grief was once a heavy burden.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
grieff
a) g
b) r
c) i
d) f
Show answer
d) f. Grief ends in a single f, like chief.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
grief
a) woe
b) distress
c) anguish
d) joy
Show answer
d) joy. Distress, anguish and woe are all kinds of sorrow; joy is the opposite.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
ifger
a) grief
b) fried
c) chief
d) brief
Show answer
a) grief. Brief has a b, chief a c and an h, and fried a d; the jumble has a g.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) jealosy
b) embarrasment
c) grief
d) lonliness
Show answer
c) grief. Jealousy has ou, embarrassment ends in ssment and loneliness keeps the e of lone.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is most likely to cause grief?
a) a best friend moving far away
b) getting a new bicycle for a birthday
c) winning a prize in the school quiz
d) finding a lost pen under the desk
Show answer
a) a best friend moving far away
2. What is the kindest way to help a friend who is full of grief?
a) listen to them and stay close
b) leave them alone for a month
c) laugh and change the subject
d) tell them to stop being sad
Show answer
a) listen to them and stay close
