noun
Meaning 1
A grievance complained of.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
gravamen
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.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ɡɹəˈveɪmɛn/
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Received-Pronunciation: /-ˈvɑː-/
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Received-Pronunciation: /-mən/
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɡɹævəmɛn/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ɡɹəˈveɪmən/
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General-American: /-ˈvɑ-/
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General-American: /ˈɡɹævəmɛn/
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General-American: /ˈɡɹɑ-/
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rhymes with -eɪmən
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General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ɡɹəˈveɪmɪnə/
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CMU ARPABET: G R AA0 V EY1 M AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A grievance complained of.
A document sent by the Lower House of Convocation to the Upper House to inform the latter of certain grievances in the church.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: Anglicanism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The essence or ground of a complaint.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
The essence or most important aspect of a piece of writing, a point of argument, etc.; the gist.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: essence, nature, ousia, quiddity, marrow, quintessence, whatness, bowels, sum, brass tacks, core, crux, gist, drift, guts, gravamen, heart, heart and soul, heartstring, heartstrings, inwardness, kernel, meat, moral of the story, nitty-gritty, nub, nuts and bolts, pith, punctum saliens, soul, spirit, stuff, substance, tenor
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A formal charge or complaint.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin gravāmen (“physical inconvenience”) and Medieval Latin gravāmen (“grievance”), from Latin gravāre + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension). Gravāre is the present active infinitive of gravō (“to burden, weigh down; to oppress”), from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious; hard, troublesome”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gwreh2- (“heavy”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). The plural form gravamina is derived from Late Latin gravāmina.
Across languages
Translations
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: оплакване (oplakvane) — grievance complained of
- Bulgarian: жалба (žalba) — grievance complained of