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gripe

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

gryp
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɹaɪp

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. chiefly in the plural

    Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

  2. A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.

  3. A vulture, Gyps fulvus; the griffin.

verb

  1. intransitiveinformal

    To complain; to whine.

  2. transitiveinformal

    To annoy or bother.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

Used this way, gripe is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use gripe

  • “I have a gripe about the service here.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

gripe watergripe sessionlegitimate gripeiron gripemain gripemaria gripe

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • gripesnounPlural form

    Acute abdominal pain (especially in infants).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to complain

holler

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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.