Meaning & use
lament
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To express great sadness or disappointment about something.
Grammar: With an object or that-clause: lament the loss; lament that the town has changed. Also lament over something.
Patterns
- lament something
- lament that something
- lament over something
Fans lamented the closing of the old stadium.
He lamented that young people no longer read.
She lamented over her lost chance.
nouncountable
A song, poem or speech that expresses grief or sadness.
Grammar: Often followed by for.
Patterns
- a lament for someone
The piper played a lament at the funeral.
The poem is a lament for a lost world.
nouncountable
A strong expression of regret or complaint.
Grammar: Often singular, with a possessive.
His constant lament was that there was never enough time.
Word forms
| third person singular | laments |
|---|---|
| past tense | lamented |
| past participle | lamented |
| -ing form | lamenting |
| plural | laments |
Common combinations
- lament the loss
- They lamented the loss of the old library.
- lament the decline
- Critics lament the decline of reading.
- openly lament
- He openly lamented his bad luck.
- a funeral lament
- A bagpipe lament played.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mourn
- Stresses grief for a person who has died or something lost.
- bemoan
- Suggests complaining about something, more than feeling grief.
- grieve
- Describes deep emotional pain, often for death.
- deplore
- Means to strongly disapprove of.
Opposites
Word family
- lamentation noun
- the act of mourning
- lamentable adjective
- unfortunate or regrettable
- lamented adjective
- mourned, as in the late lamented
Commonly confused: lament or lament vs. complain?
lament vs lament vs. complain
Complain suggests annoyance with a fault; lament suggests sorrow over a loss.
Practice
Older residents ___ the loss of the village shop that had stood for a century.
Choose one answer.
Lament means to express sorrow about a loss. Celebrated would suggest happiness, which does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lament”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.