Dictionary

mourner en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• mo͝ornʹə rare, non-rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmoənə/ non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
• mônʹə (Received-Pronunciation)
• mōrnʹə rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
• mo͝ornʹər rare, rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger
• /ˈmʊɹnɚ/ rare, rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger
• môrnʹər (General-American)
• /ˈmɔːnə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmʊənə/ rare, non-rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger
• /ˈmɔɹnɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈmo(ː)ɹnɚ/ rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Etymology

From Middle English mourner, mornere, equivalent to mourn + -er.

Meanings

1. Someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness, especially over a death; someone who mourns.
   • 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; […] 1830, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Juvenile Forget Me Not 1831, The Miniature, pages 37–45:
   • I stood close to heartsick mourners and worried that I would not sustain the enormousness of their spiritual weight. 2024 September 17, Lauren DePino, “I Sang at Hundreds of Funerals. This Is What I Learned About Grief.”, in The New York Times Magazine:
2. A person attending a funeral or otherwise participating in rituals related to bereavement.
   • Looking out the door I see the rain / Fall upon the funeral mourners / Parading in a wake of sad relations / As their shoes fill up with water 1995, “Lover, You Should've Come Over”, in Grace (Folk Pop), performed by Jeff Buckley, United States:
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.

Forms

Deriveds

hired mourner · mourneress

Translations (19)

la plōrātor m. praefica (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · ka დამტირებელი (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · pl żałobnica (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · de Trauernder (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · yi קלאָגערין (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · mi paemate (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · yi אָבֿל (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · yi קלאָגער (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · sw mwombolezaji (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · de Trauernde (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · ha makoki (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · fi surija (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · sw mfiwa (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · pl żałobnik (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · bg опечален (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · ka ჭირისუფალი (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · mi kirimate (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · mi kiriwera (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness) · ru пла́кальщик (someone filled with or expressing grief or sadness)