aggrieve means to cause someone to feel pain or sorrow to; to afflict. It carries an Arena rating of 1716, earned across 78 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, aggrieve ranks #1,530 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,774 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #2,059 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,538 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
aggrieve is pronounced /əˈɡɹiːv/.
Why “aggrieve” is a great word
AGGRIEVE — [Verb] To cause someone grief, distress, or a sense of injury, especially through perceived injustice. From Middle English agreven, from Old French agrever, from Latin aggravāre ("to make heavy, worsen"), from ad- ("to") + gravāre ("to weigh down"), from gravis ("heavy"). Unlike "afflict," which suggests suffering imposed by an indifferent force like disease, or "offend," which implies a breach of manners or law, to aggrieve is to burden the spirit with the specific, cold density of unfairness. It is the quiet ache of the overlooked employee, the weary slope of shoulders under an undeserved burden, and the metallic taste of a promise broken without explanation—the profound sorrow that one's heaviest burdens are those of injustice, a weight that settles in the bones.
Etymology
From Middle English agreven, from Old French agrever; a (Latin ad) + grever (“to burden, injure”), from Latin gravare (“to weigh down”), from gravis (“heavy”). See grieve, and compare with aggravate.
verb
- To cause someone to feel pain or sorrow to; to afflict
- To grieve; to lament.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.