What does "grave" mean?

1. (burial place) a hole in the ground where a dead person is buried. 2. (accent mark) a small mark (`) placed over a letter in some languages like French. 3. (serious or worrying) very serious and important, often in a way that causes worry. 4. (low in pitch) describing a sound that is low and deep. 5. (to engrave) to carve or cut words or pictures into a hard surface. 6. (to clean a ship) to clean the bottom of a boat to remove shells and plants.

grave — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01burial place

B1 · Intermediate Countable noun

n. a hole in the ground where a dead person is buried.

n. an excavation in the earth for the purpose of burial; by extension, any place of interment.

“They visited the cemetery to place fresh flowers on their grandfather's grave.”

“The archaeologists discovered an unmarked grave containing several artefacts that suggested the occupant was a person of high social standing.”

Synonyms

tomb sepulchreburial place

02accent mark

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Technical

n. a small mark (`) placed over a letter in some languages like French.

n. a diacritical mark (`) used in various languages to indicate vowel quality, pitch, or stress.

“In the French word 'père', there is a grave accent over the first 'e'.”

“The student struggled to distinguish between the acute and grave accents when transcribing the phonetic nuances of the dialect.”

Synonyms

accent

03serious or worrying

B2 · Upper Intermediate

adj. very serious and important, often in a way that causes worry.

adj. characterised by a dignified sense of seriousness; involving important or life-threatening consequences.

“The doctor had a grave expression on his face as he told us the news.”

“The diplomatic situation reached a grave turning point when the ceasefire was violated for the third time in a week.”

Synonyms

serious severe critical

Antonyms

trivial cheerful

04low in pitch

C2 · Proficiency Music Technical · Formal

adj. describing a sound that is low and deep.

adj. referring to a sound or musical tone that is low in pitch.

“The organ produced a grave, booming sound that shook the floor.”

“The composer specified a grave tempo and register for the opening movement to evoke a sense of solemnity.”

Synonyms

deeplow-pitched

Antonyms

acutehigh-pitched

05to engrave

C2 · Proficiency Archaic · Literary

v. to carve or cut words or pictures into a hard surface.

v. to carve, cut, or engrave letters or figures into a hard substance; often used figuratively for fixing something in the mind.

“The craftsman began to grave the king's name into the stone monument.”

“The tragic events of that winter were graven deeply into the memories of all who survived the famine.”

Synonyms

engravecarve etch

06to clean a ship

C2 · Proficiency Nautical Archaic · Technical

v. to clean the bottom of a boat to remove shells and plants.

v. to clean a vessel's bottom of barnacles and grass before coating it with pitch.

“The sailors had to grave the ship's hull before the long journey home.”

“The vessel was brought into the dry dock so the crew could grave the hull and apply a fresh layer of protective pitch.”

Synonyms

clean scrape

Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “grave” in context.

Verb

01. dig a grave

“The gravedigger worked silently in the rain to dig a grave for the afternoon ceremony.”

verb + noun

02. turn in his grave

“The legendary composer would turn in his grave if he heard this pop remix of his symphony.”

verb + prep + possessive + noun

Adjective

03. grave concern

“The rapid decline in biodiversity is a matter of grave concern for environmentalists.”

adj + noun

04. grave consequences

“Failure to comply with the new safety regulations could have grave consequences for the company.”

adj + noun

05. grave danger

“The hikers were in grave danger when the sudden blizzard trapped them on the mountain ridge.”

adj + noun

Noun

06. unmarked grave

“Many soldiers who fell during the retreat were buried in an unmarked grave.”

adj + noun

Preposition

07. from the grave

“The author's final memoirs were published from the grave, nearly a decade after his death.”

prep + noun

08. to the grave

“He was a man of absolute integrity who took his secrets with him to the grave.”

prep + noun

“One day, I told myself, I will play the Bach double with my daughter, even if it’s just once, even if Bach turns in his grave at my discordant double stops.”

The Guardian 15 Aug 2026

“In Daffodils, for example, the narrator ponders planting daffodils on the grave of someone he has poisoned.”

The Guardian 10 Aug 2026

From Middle English grave, grafe, from Old English græf, grafu (“cave, grave, trench”), from Proto-West Germanic grab, from Proto-Germanic grabą, grabō (“grave, trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with West Frisian grêf (“grave”), Dutch graf (“grave”), Low German Graf (“a grave”), Graff, German Grab (“grave”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian grav (“grave”), Icelandic gröf (“grave”). Related to groove.

From Middle English graven, from Old English grafan (“to dig, dig up, grave, engrave, carve, chisel”), from Proto-Germanic grabaną (“to dig”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Dutch graven (“to dig”), German graben (“to dig”), Danish grave (“to dig”), Swedish gräva (“to dig”), Icelandic grafa (“to dig”).

From Middle French grave, a learned borrowing from Latin gravis (“heavy, important”). Compare Old French greve (“terrible, dreadful”). Doublet of grief.

Inherited from Middle English greyve. Doublet of graaf (borrowed from the Dutch cognate graaf (“count, earl”)) and graf (borrowed from the German cognate Graf (“count, earl”)).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

grave(C1)

gravestone(B1)

graveyard(B1)

ADVERB

gravely(B2)

defile desecrated exhumed grasp grub