Condolence

//kənˈdoʊləns// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Comfort, support or sympathy. uncountable

    "There was not much to do after the accident but offer what condolence I could."

  2. 2
    an expression of sympathy with another's grief wordnet
  3. 3
    An expression of comfort, support, or sympathy offered to the family and friends of somebody who has died. countable, plural-normally

    "I sent her a card expressing my condolences after her mother passed away."

Synonyms

All synonyms
aid and comfortassurancebalmbenevolenceclemencycomfort

Example

More examples

"Use a brief expression of condolence, such as: "On this sad occasion we grieve with you"."

Etymology

From condole + -ence, or from Middle French condoléance, or formed from the root of Latin condoleō (“I sympathize”), from con- (“together, with”) and doleō (“I hurt, suffer, have pain”).

Related phrases

book of condolencecondolence card

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.