bereft
adjective
Simple meaning
Pained by the loss of someone.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
berehftSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
bɚˈɛft
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
of a person
Pained by the loss of someone.
Deprived of, stripped of, robbed of.
Lacking, devoid of.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (of a person) Pained by the loss of someone.
In this sense, bereft is a very strong, expressive word and signals serious, lasting hurt rather than disappointment.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Bereft is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Synonyms
Sense: pained by the loss of someone
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.