WOEs

Woes is the plural form of the noun woe. It denotes great sorrow or misfortune and can refer to a single person’s distress or to a broader set of troubles affecting a group or society. In everyday use, the term often carries a formal or literary tone, with phrases such as the woes of poverty or the woes of war commonly appearing in writing. The expression woe is me is archaic or poetic and not part of ordinary contemporary speech. Woes can be personal, such as grief after a loss, or collective, such as economic hardship or natural disasters.

Etymology: The word woe derives from Old English wā, a lament or expression of sorrow, and is cognate with related forms in other Germanic languages. The plural woes appears in later Middle English and has since maintained a sense that underscores severity or multiplicity of misfortune. In modern usage, it retains a predominantly formal or literary flavor.

Usage and nuance: Woes convey a sense of gravity and sympathy and are often used to emphasize serious suffering rather than everyday trouble. They can describe emotional states or external circumstances and are frequently employed in literature, religious discourse, and rhetorical writing to frame suffering as pervasive or consequential.

See also: misfortune, sorrow, hardship, calamity, tribulation.