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Keening vs Mourning - What's the difference?

keening | mourning | Related terms |

Keening is a related term of mourning.


As nouns the difference between keening and mourning

is that keening is intense mournful wailing after a death, often at a funeral or wake while mourning is the act of expressing or feeling sorrow or regret; lamentation.

As verbs the difference between keening and mourning

is that keening is while mourning is .

As an adjective keening

is sharp, shrill, especially of a sound.

keening

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Sharp, shrill, especially of a sound.
    • ''The keening sound of a dentist's drill sets my teeth on edge"

    Noun

  • Intense mournful wailing after a death, often at a funeral or wake
  • (by extension) An unpleasant sound.

    • Verb

    (head)

    • Anagrams

    *

    mourning

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

  • The act of expressing or feeling sorrow or regret; lamentation.
  • Feeling or expressing sorrow over someone's death.
  • * 1900 , , (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) , Chapter 23
    • "My greatest wish now," she added, "is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning ; and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it."
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
    • , passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 19, author=Kerry Brown, work=The Guardian
    • , title= Kim Jong-il obituary , passage=Unsurprisingly for a man who went into mourning for three years after the death in 1994 of his own father, the legendary leader Kim Il-sung, and who in the first 30 years of his political career made no public statements, even to his own people, Kim's career is riddled with claims, counter claims, speculation, and contradiction. There are few hard facts about his birth and early years.}}
  • The traditional clothes worn by those who mourn (in Western societies, typically coloured black).
  • * 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 88:
    • ‘I'm bored. I can't go out anywhere because it's too soon and I have to wear this disgusting mourning .’
  • Drapes or coverings associated with mourning.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
    • The houses to their tops with black were spread, / And ev'n the pavements were with mourning hid.