Word.ws English Dictionary

lacrimae rerum

/ˈlækɹɪmaɪ ˈɹeɪɹəm/

lacrimae rerum noun: the “tears of things”; the inherent tragedy of existence.

Noun

lacrimae rerum (plurale tantum)

  1. (plural, plural-only, rare) The “tears of things”; the inherent tragedy of existence.
    • Louis Macneice in a note on Eliot and the Adolescent remarks that “anyhow lacrimae rerum are not a monopoly of the mature adult.” Indeed the lacrimae rerum of the adolescent are likely to be far more bitter and consuming than those of the mature adult learning to care and not to care.1993, Robert D. Hamner, Critical perspectives on Derek Walcott, →ISBN, page 101
    • So too is Byles's depiction of Brooke feeling the weight of lacrimae rerum as he looks from the deck of his ship towards the unknown lands in which he will indeed lie buried, and realizes that his duty to his country requires the renunciation of his personal dreams for the future.2010, Elizabeth Vandiver, Stand in the Trench, Achilles, →ISBN, page 375

Forms of lacrimae rerum

alternative formlacrimæ rerum
alternative formlachrymae rerum
alternative formlachrymæ rerum

Origin of lacrimae rerum

An allusion to Virgil’s Aeneid (29–19 BC), book I, line 462; Latin: lacrimae (“tears”, the nominative plural form of lacrima, “tear”) + rērum (“of things”, the genitive plural form of rēs, “thing”) = “tears of things”.

Questions about lacrimae rerum

What does lacrimae rerum mean?
Lacrimae rerum means the “tears of things”; the inherent tragedy of existence.
What part of speech is lacrimae rerum?
Lacrimae rerum is a noun.
How do you pronounce lacrimae rerum?
Lacrimae rerum is pronounced /ˈlækɹɪmaɪ ˈɹeɪɹəm/ (UK).

Words near lacrimae rerum in the dictionary

  1. lacqueys
  2. Lacquios
  3. Lacresha
  4. lacriform
  5. Lacrima Christi
  6. lacrimae rerum
  7. lacrimal
  8. lacrimal apparatus
  9. lacrimal apparatuses
  10. lacrimal arteries
  11. lacrimal artery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lacrimae rerum (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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