Meaning

Someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness, especially over a death; someone who mourns..

Definitions by Sense

1. Someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness, especially over a death; someone who mourns.
2. A person attending a funeral or otherwise participating in rituals related to bereavement.
3. In certain cultures, a person hired to participate in funerary rituals, sometimes by making a conspicuous and/or conventional show of grief; hired mourner.
4. Any of a number of suboscine birds in the related familes Tityridae and Tyrannidae.

Example Sentences

Disuniter of all affection—awful seal to life's nothingness—warning and witness of power and judgment—Death has always enow of terror and sorrow, even when there are many to comfort the mourner, when the path has been smoothed for the sufferer, and life offers all its best and brightest to soothe the survivor; […]

I stood close to heartsick mourners and worried that I would not sustain the enormousness of their spiritual weight.

Word Forms

• mourners

Synonyms for mourner

Related Words

When Should You Use Mourner?

Use mourner when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions