noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Received-Pronunciation:/ˈdɒlə/
Received-Pronunciation:/ˈdəʊlə/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/ˈdoʊlɚ/
General-American:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
homophone: dollar (some accents)
rhymes with -ɒlə(ɹ)
rhymes with -əʊlə(ɹ)
1
noun
Meaning 1
Anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, literary, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
From Middle English dolour (“physical pain, agony, suffering; painful disease; anguish, grief, misery, sorrow; grieving for sins, contrition; hardship, misery, trouble; cause of grief or suffering, affliction”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman dolour, Old French dolour, dolor, dulur (“pain”) (modern French douleur (“pain; distress”)), from Latin dolor (“ache, hurt, pain; anguish, grief, sorrow; anger, indignation, resentment”), from doleō (“to hurt, suffer physical pain; to deplore, grieve, lament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh1- (“to divide, split”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). The English word is a doublet of dol.
Across languages
Translations
28 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Bulgarian:
печал
(pečal)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Bulgarian:
скръб
(skrǎb)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Catalan:
dolor
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Chinese Mandarin:
悲哀
(bēi'āi)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Chinese Mandarin:
傷心 /伤心
(shāngxīn)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Danish:
smerte
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Dutch:
smart
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
French:
douleur
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
French:
deuil
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Galician:
dor
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
German:
Schmerz
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Hungarian:
bú
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Irish:
ong
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Irish:
dólás
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Italian:
dolore
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Japanese:
悲哀
(hiai)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Latin:
dolor
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Malay:
kesedihan
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Polish:
boleść
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Polish:
rozpacz
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Polish:
żal
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Russian:
го́ре
(góre)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Russian:
гру́сть
(grústʹ)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Russian:
печа́ль
(pečálʹ)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Russian:
ско́рбь
(skórbʹ)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Russian:
тоска́
(toská)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Spanish:
dolor
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
Ukrainian:
смуток
(smutok)
— anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow
