Word.ws English Dictionary

condolences

/kənˈdoʊlənsɪz/

condolences is the plural of condolence.

Meaning of condolence

Noun

condolence (countable and uncountable, plural condolences)

  1. (uncountable) Comfort, support or sympathy.
    • There was not much to do after the accident but offer what condolence I could.
  2. (countable, plural-normally) An expression of comfort, support, or sympathy offered to the family and friends of somebody who has died.
    • I sent her a card expressing my condolences after her mother passed away.

Noun

condolences pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) comfort, support, or sympathy offered especially to the family and friends of somebody who has died.
    • I sent her a card expressing my condolences after her mother passed away.

Interjection

  1. Expressing sympathy to someone, especially after learning of a close death.
    • "What were you doing at the cemetery?"
      "Burying my father."
      "Oh." Rodionov grunted as if he had expected a more imaginative excuse. "Condolences."1992, Martin Cruz Smith, Red Square, page 120
    • Let's get another caller on the line. This is Camille. Camille with us from Visalia in California.
      Visalia, California that's correct.
      Go ahead please.
      Hi. I'm an African-American woman and when I first saw the cover – let me preface this. I'm in central California, which is very conservative....2008 July 15, NPR, “When Does It Go Too Far?”, in Talk of the Nation

Words formed from condolences

Phrases with condolences

Questions about condolences

What does condolences mean?
Condolences means comfort, support, or sympathy offered especially to the family and friends of somebody who has died.
What is condolences the plural of?
Condolences is the plural of condolence.
What part of speech is condolences?
Condolences can be a noun or an interjection.
How do you pronounce condolences?
Condolences is pronounced /kənˈdoʊlənsɪz/.

Words near condolences in the dictionary

  1. condolement
  2. condolements
  3. condolence
  4. condolence card
  5. condolence cards
  6. condolences
  7. condolent
  8. condolently
  9. condoler
  10. condolers
  11. condoles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: condolences (page history and authors); condolence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-condolences.ogg.

Cite this entry: “condolences.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/condolences. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.