groan
UK/ˈɡɹəʊ̯n//ˈɡɹoʊ̯n/
groan noun: a low, mournful sound uttered in pain or grief.
Noun
groan (plural groans)
Verb
groan (third-person singular simple present groans, present participle groaning, simple past and past participle groaned)
- To make a groan.
- We groaned at his awful jokes.
- The wooden table groaned under the weight of the banquet.
- To seemingly creak under the strain of being heavily laden.
- That night the table in the outer dining room was just groaning with good things.1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 14, column 1
- Bookshelves groan under the bloated weight of tomes detailing Great Straight Marriages.1979 February 10, John Mitzel, “Crimes of Passion”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 13
- To strive after earnestly, as if with groans.
- Nothing but holy, pure, and clear, / Or that which groaneth to be so.[1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis...
groan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
groan in Hindi
- groan
- ज़ार zār
groan in Tamil
- to groan, moan
- முனகு muṉaku
groan in Urdu
- groan
- زار zār
groan in Bengali
- হাহাকার করা, কাতরানো
More languagesFewer languages
- groan in Malayalam
- ഞരങ്ങുക ñaraṅṅuka
- groan in Kannada
- ಆರ್ತನಾದ, ನೋವು, ನರಳಾಟ, ನರಳಿಕೆ
- groan in Gujarati
- ઠીનક ṭhīnak
- groan in Arabic
- آهَة ʔāha, أَنِين ʔanīn, تَأَوَّهَ taʔawwaha, أَنَّ ʔanna
- groan in Persian
- نالیدن nâlidan
- groan in Vietnamese
- rên
Examples of groan in a sentence
- Edward told an unfunny knock-knock joke that made his brother groan.
- We sat down to a groaning table and feasted all evening.
- Jacob groaned inwardly when he was called on to answer the question.
Forms of groan
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | groans |
| alternative form | groane |
| alternative Scotland | grane |
| alternative Scotland | grain |
| alternative Scotland | graen |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | groans |
| present participle | groaning |
| past participle | groaned |
| past | groaned |
Origin of groan
From Middle English gronen, granen, from Old English grānian (“to groan; lament; murmur”), from Proto-West Germanic *grainōn, from Proto-Germanic *grainōną (“to howl; weep”), from Proto-Germanic *grīnaną (“to whine; howl; whimper”). Cognate with Scots grain (“to cry, scream”), Dutch grijnen, grienen (“to cry; sob; blubber”), German Low German grienen (“to whimper; mewl”), German greinen (“to whine; whimper”), Swedish grina (“to howl; weep; laugh”). The noun is from Middle English gron, grone, from the verb.
Words formed from groan
Phrases with groan
Words that rhyme with groan
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- moan
- throne
- atone
- clone
- crone
- prone
- depone
- hone
- loan
- cologne
- condone
- disenthrone
- disown
- eau de cologne
- enthrone
- intone
- roan
- Sloan
- Sloane
- thrown
- unknown
- bemoan
- cobblestone
- Copplestone
- grown
- joan
- known
- none
- overgrown
- pension
- phone
- postpone
- redstone
- sone
- Stallone
- answer phone
- arthron
- beknown
- cauterizing stone
- compone
- crosne
- crown
- cuboidal bone
- cuttlefish bone
- Ediphone
- enzone
- flown
- Four Shire Stone
Questions about groan
- What does groan mean?
- Groan means a low, mournful sound uttered in pain or grief.
- What is groan in Hindi?
- Groan in Hindi is ज़ार (zār). See Groan meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is groan?
- Groan can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce groan?
- Groan is pronounced /ˈɡɹəʊ̯n/ (UK).
- What is the plural of groan?
- The plural of groan is groans.
Words near groan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: groan (page history and authors); ज़ार (Hindi) (page history and authors); முனகு (Tamil) (page history and authors); زار (Urdu) (page history and authors); groan (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഞരങ്ങുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); groan (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ઠીનક (Gujarati) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-groan.ogg.
Cite this entry: “groan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/groan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.