Lament
noun
A poem, piece of music, or song expressing grief or sorrow.
They sang a lament for the dead soldiers.
Often appears as...
- sing a lament
- a lament for something
Usage tips
Literary
verb
To express deep sadness or regret about something.
She lamented the loss of her best friend.
Often appears as...
- lament the loss
- lament over something
noun
An expression of regret or disappointment.
Her decision to leave was a great lament to all of us.
Often appears as...
- a great lament
- a lament of something
noun
A poem, piece of music, or song expressing grief or sorrow.
They sang a lament for the dead soldiers.
Often appears as...
- sing a lament
- a lament for something
Usage tips
Literary
verb
To express deep sadness or regret about something.
She lamented the loss of her best friend.
Often appears as...
- lament the loss
- lament over something
noun
An expression of regret or disappointment.
Her decision to leave was a great lament to all of us.
Often appears as...
- a great lament
- a lament of something
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Use
Used mainly in literary contexts such as poetry or music to evoke strong emotions.
The bard composed a haunting lament for the lost kingdom.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Rituals
'Lament' can be part of cultural mourning rituals, often with historical roots.
The lament at the funeral was an ancient tradition of the town.
Pro Tip 3/3Expressing Sorrow
Emphasizes communal sharing of grief, not just individual sadness.
The choir's lament brought tears to the eyes of the entire congregation.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Use
Used mainly in literary contexts such as poetry or music to evoke strong emotions.
The bard composed a haunting lament for the lost kingdom.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Rituals
'Lament' can be part of cultural mourning rituals, often with historical roots.
The lament at the funeral was an ancient tradition of the town.
Pro Tip 3/3Expressing Sorrow
Emphasizes communal sharing of grief, not just individual sadness.
The choir's lament brought tears to the eyes of the entire congregation.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Use
Used mainly in literary contexts such as poetry or music to evoke strong emotions.
The bard composed a haunting lament for the lost kingdom.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Rituals
'Lament' can be part of cultural mourning rituals, often with historical roots.
The lament at the funeral was an ancient tradition of the town.
Pro Tip 3/3Expressing Sorrow
Emphasizes communal sharing of grief, not just individual sadness.
The choir's lament brought tears to the eyes of the entire congregation.
Never forget "Lament"
Humans forget easily. That's why you should download WordUp: Smart reminders, word games, AI practice, and much more!
Video examples
An ode to living on...
of how it had all gone wrong for us individually and collectively. It has been inspiring to watch how the best comes from the worst. How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning to the realization that our connections with each other are some of the most important things we have. But stepping back. For all we've had to lament,
Video examples
To raise brave girls,...
Now, the answer began to come when a friend of mine lamented to me that her young daughter was a big scaredy-cat, and so I began to notice, and yes, the daughter was anxious, but more than that, the parents were anxious. Most of what they said to her when she was outside began with,
Video examples
Kathryn Schulz: Don't...
which is that lamenting things that occurred in the past is an absolute waste of time, that we should always look forward and not backward, and that one of the noblest and best things we can do is strive to live a life free of regrets. This idea is nicely captured by this
Video examples
How judges can show...
He lamented his underage drinking charge. As he stood before me reading his essay, his voice cracking and his hands trembling, he said that he worried that he had become an alcoholic like his mom, who had died a couple of months prior due to alcohol-related liver disease.
Video examples
Larry Brilliant: TED...
finding out those terrible things before anybody else knows about them, and sending our response to them, so that next year, instead of us meeting here, lamenting how many terrible things there are in the world, we will have pulled together,
Video examples
Hope for the Congo PIPE ...
there are a lot of things to lament particularly in the last 15 years about five and a half million people have died who otherwise would not have from from conflict and conflict related causes mostly starvation and present a
Video examples
Why you should talk to...
This gets reported in the media with great lament. "Strangers communicate better than spouses!" It's a good headline, right? I think it entirely misses the point. The important thing about these studies
Video examples
Everest Tourism Changed...
a lot of Obama's and people who still are practicing in the region they really lamented the fact more than anyone else just because people are moving away from the old religious ways of life and they
Video examples
Why I fight for the...
I wasn't allowed. They said her family did not find it fit for her children, who are all girls, to attend her burial, simply because we were girls. They would lament to me and say,
Video examples
Why should you read...
and the futility of life. "Out, out, brief candle!" he laments. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
Video examples
An ode to living on...
of how it had all gone wrong for us individually and collectively. It has been inspiring to watch how the best comes from the worst. How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning to the realization that our connections with each other are some of the most important things we have. But stepping back. For all we've had to lament,
Video examples
To raise brave girls,...
Now, the answer began to come when a friend of mine lamented to me that her young daughter was a big scaredy-cat, and so I began to notice, and yes, the daughter was anxious, but more than that, the parents were anxious. Most of what they said to her when she was outside began with,
Video examples
Kathryn Schulz: Don't...
which is that lamenting things that occurred in the past is an absolute waste of time, that we should always look forward and not backward, and that one of the noblest and best things we can do is strive to live a life free of regrets. This idea is nicely captured by this
Video examples
How judges can show...
He lamented his underage drinking charge. As he stood before me reading his essay, his voice cracking and his hands trembling, he said that he worried that he had become an alcoholic like his mom, who had died a couple of months prior due to alcohol-related liver disease.
Video examples
Larry Brilliant: TED...
finding out those terrible things before anybody else knows about them, and sending our response to them, so that next year, instead of us meeting here, lamenting how many terrible things there are in the world, we will have pulled together,
Video examples
Hope for the Congo PIPE ...
there are a lot of things to lament particularly in the last 15 years about five and a half million people have died who otherwise would not have from from conflict and conflict related causes mostly starvation and present a
Video examples
Why you should talk to...
This gets reported in the media with great lament. "Strangers communicate better than spouses!" It's a good headline, right? I think it entirely misses the point. The important thing about these studies
Video examples
Everest Tourism Changed...
a lot of Obama's and people who still are practicing in the region they really lamented the fact more than anyone else just because people are moving away from the old religious ways of life and they
Video examples
Why I fight for the...
I wasn't allowed. They said her family did not find it fit for her children, who are all girls, to attend her burial, simply because we were girls. They would lament to me and say,
Video examples
Why should you read...
and the futility of life. "Out, out, brief candle!" he laments. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Charles Best
American Businessman
DonorsChoose was conceived at a Bronx public high school where I taught social studies for five years. In the teachers' lunch room, my colleagues and I often lamented a problem that drained learning from students and creativity from teachers: a lack of funding for essential materials and for the activities that bring subject matter to life.
Quote examples
Edward Burtynsky
Canadian Photographer
I can go into the wilderness and not see anyone for days and experience a kind of space that hasn't changed for tens of thousands of years. Having that experience was necessary to my perception of how photography can look at the changes humanity has brought about in the landscape. My work does become a kind of lament.
Quote examples
George A. Moore
Irish Novelist
Isn't it strange that religious prejudices - beliefs none possess, not even the saints, so they have lamented - divide brothers and sons from their fathers. You see, I except mothers and sisters; the female is not a religious animal. If she were, the world would have ceased long ago.
Quote examples
Elizabeth Montagu
British Writer
She kindly laments that I am not of the party, and to be sure I honour great ladies, and I admire great wits, but I am of the same opinion in regard to assemblies that is held concerning oysters, that they are never good in a month that has not the letter R in it.
Quote examples
Alice Oswald
British Poet
One of the rules of Greek lament poetry is that it mustn't mention the dead by name in case of invoking a ghost. Maybe the 'Iliad,' crowded with names, is more than a poem. Maybe it's a dangerous piece of the brightness of both this world and the next.
Quote examples
Poppy Z. Brite
American Author
This is the point being missed by readers who lament Liquor's lack of hot sex scenes, probably because they aren't old enough to understand that a passionate relationship could be about anything other than sex.
Quote examples
Craig Kielburger
Canadian Activist
People in the business world lament economic resources wasted on unsustainable development projects and what they see as activists' naive failure to grasp the importance of building strong economies.
Quote examples
Neil deGrasse Tyson
American Scientist
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping.
Quote examples
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Roman Statesman
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
Quote examples
Charles Best
American Businessman
DonorsChoose was conceived at a Bronx public high school where I taught social studies for five years. In the teachers' lunch room, my colleagues and I often lamented a problem that drained learning from students and creativity from teachers: a lack of funding for essential materials and for the activities that bring subject matter to life.
Quote examples
Edward Burtynsky
Canadian Photographer
I can go into the wilderness and not see anyone for days and experience a kind of space that hasn't changed for tens of thousands of years. Having that experience was necessary to my perception of how photography can look at the changes humanity has brought about in the landscape. My work does become a kind of lament.
Quote examples
George A. Moore
Irish Novelist
Isn't it strange that religious prejudices - beliefs none possess, not even the saints, so they have lamented - divide brothers and sons from their fathers. You see, I except mothers and sisters; the female is not a religious animal. If she were, the world would have ceased long ago.
Quote examples
Elizabeth Montagu
British Writer
She kindly laments that I am not of the party, and to be sure I honour great ladies, and I admire great wits, but I am of the same opinion in regard to assemblies that is held concerning oysters, that they are never good in a month that has not the letter R in it.
Quote examples
Alice Oswald
British Poet
One of the rules of Greek lament poetry is that it mustn't mention the dead by name in case of invoking a ghost. Maybe the 'Iliad,' crowded with names, is more than a poem. Maybe it's a dangerous piece of the brightness of both this world and the next.
Quote examples
Poppy Z. Brite
American Author
This is the point being missed by readers who lament Liquor's lack of hot sex scenes, probably because they aren't old enough to understand that a passionate relationship could be about anything other than sex.
Quote examples
Craig Kielburger
Canadian Activist
People in the business world lament economic resources wasted on unsustainable development projects and what they see as activists' naive failure to grasp the importance of building strong economies.
Quote examples
Neil deGrasse Tyson
American Scientist
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping.
Quote examples
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Roman Statesman
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
Example 1 of 10
WordUp Chrome Extension
As you browse the web instantly look up words you don’t know.
Get Chrome Extension