Meaning & use
bereaved mother
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A mother whose child has died, especially recently.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a bereaved mother' or 'the bereaved mothers'.
Patterns
- a bereaved mother
- support for bereaved mothers
The charity offers counseling to bereaved mothers.
She became a bereaved mother at thirty and now helps others.
A group of bereaved mothers met every month to share their stories.
Word forms
| plural | bereaved mothers |
|---|
Common combinations
- a bereaved mother
- The book was written by a bereaved mother.
- support for bereaved mothers
- The hospital provides support for bereaved mothers.
- bereaved parents
- Bereaved parents often feel isolated.
- help a bereaved mother
- Volunteers help a bereaved mother through the first year.
Synonyms and how they differ
- grieving mother
- Focuses on the active feeling of grief rather than the fact of having lost a child; 'bereaved' is more formal and factual.
- mourning mother
- Suggests the public rituals and period of mourning; 'bereaved' simply describes the loss.
Word family
- bereaved adjective
- Having recently lost a close relative or friend through death.
- bereavement noun
- The state of having lost someone close, or the period of grief after a death.
- bereave verb
- To deprive someone of a close relative by death (rare; usually passive).
Commonly confused: bereaved mother or bereft?
bereaved mother vs bereft
Bereft means 'completely lacking something' or 'feeling a deep sense of loss'; it can describe a feeling, while 'bereaved' refers to a person who has actually lost someone through death.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'bereaved mother' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 0 correctly describes a mother whose child has died. Option 1 is wrong because a bereaved mother's child has died, so she would not celebrate that child's birthday. Option 2 is wrong because 'mother' refers to a woman. Option 3 is wrong because a bereaved mother has lost a child, not just given birth.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bereaved mother”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.