mourns

Mourns is the third-person singular present tense of the verb mourn. It means to feel or express sorrow for the death or loss of someone or something, or to grieve in a broader sense. In usage, it can describe personal grief or public mourning. Examples include: “She mourns her grandmother” and “The country mourns the victims of the disaster.” The verb can take a direct object (mourn someone) or the prepositional phrase for/over (mourn for someone, mourn over a loss).

Etymology and development: Mourns derives from Old English murnian (to lament), part of the broader Germanic family of verbs. It is cognate with related terms in other Germanic languages and has evolved into the modern form mourning across English dialects. The noun mourning and the adjective mournful share the same root and semantic field of sorrow and lament.

Usage and nuance: Mourn signifies both private emotion and public sympathy. It is commonly used in news reports, literary writing, and personal communication to convey sorrow for a death, a loss, or a grave misfortune. The term often appears in phrases describing the process of grieving, as well as in statements expressing national or communal sympathy.

Related terms and forms: The related noun is mourner; the adjective is mournful; the verb forms include mourn, mourned, mourning. Related concepts include grief, bereavement, and lament.

See also: mourning, mournful, mourner, grief, bereavement. In standard English, mourns functions as a standard present-tense form for subjects in the third person.