grave

1 having a matter of importance as its topic leaving gossip and celebrities to other magazines, this journal focuses on the grave issues confronting the nation Synonyms of grave serious, heavy, weightyWords Related to grave big, consequential, eventful, important, major, material, meaningful, momentous, portentous, significant, solid, substantialNear Antonyms of grave frivolous, insignificant, lite, little, Mickey Mouse, minor, silly, slight, small, trivial, unimportantAntonyms of grave light, unserious

2 involving potential loss or injury going over Niagara Falls poses a grave danger Synonyms of grave dangerous, grievous, hazardous, jeopardizing, menacing, parlous, perilous, risky, serious, threatening, unhealthy, unsafe, venturesomeWords Related to grave dicey, insecure, precarious, treacherous, uncertain; ultrahazardous; chance, haphazard, random; distressing, sickening, unpleasant; ugly, wicked; adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, deleterious, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, malignant, nasty, noxious, pernicious, pestilent; deadly, deathly, destructive, dire, fatal, fateful, fell, killer, lethal, mortal, murderousNear Antonyms of grave advantageous, beneficial, good; ultrasafeAntonyms of grave harmless, innocent, innocuous, nonhazardous, nonthreatening, safe, unthreatening

3 not joking or playful in mood or manner when I asked him how his dog was doing, he looked grave and said, “Not good” Synonyms of grave earnest, serious, humorless, no-nonsense, po-faced [British], sedate, severe, sober, sobersided, solemn, staid, uncomic, unsmiling, weightyWords Related to grave harsh, stern, strict; businesslike, professional; dignified, distinguished, elevated, serious-minded; gloomy, grimNear Antonyms of grave antic, comic, comical, droll, farcical, funny, hilarious, hysterical (also hysteric), laughable, light, light-headed, ludicrous, ridiculous, riotous, risible, screaming, sidesplitting, uproarious; featherbrained, flighty, frivolous, goofy, harebrained, lighthearted, puerile, scatterbrained; absurd, asinine, balmy, brainless, cockeyed, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dotty, fatuous, foolish, half-witted, insane, jerky, kooky (also kookie), loony (also looney), lunatic, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, senseless, silly, unwise, wacky (also whacky), weak-minded, witless, zanyAntonyms of grave facetious, flip, flippant, humorous, jesting, jocular, joking, kittenish, ludic, playful

4 having a low musical pitch or range a grave hexachord Synonyms of grave bass, deep, low, throatyWords Related to grave boomy, tubby; gruff, hoarse, husky, rough, smoky (also smokey)Near Antonyms of grave squeaking, squeaky, squealing, thin; earsplitting, penetrating, piercing, strident; peeping, tinnyAntonyms of grave acute, high, high-pitched, piping, sharp, shrill, treble

to cut (as letters or designs) on a hard surface the doomed climber graved his initials into the rock face Synonyms of grave etch, engrave, incise, inscribe, insculp [archaic]Words Related to grave carve, chisel, sculpt, sculpture; chase, groove, indent, notch; score, trace; affix, impress

1 a final resting place for a dead person the forlorn boy put flowers on his mother's grave Synonyms of grave burial, sepulchre (or sepulcher), sepulture, tomb Words Related to grave catacomb, charnel (also charnel house), columbarium, crypt, mausoleum, vault; cemetery, churchyard, graveyard, potter's field; barrow, mound, tumulus

2 the permanent stopping of all the vital bodily activities a rock star who found his early grave in a plane crash Synonyms of grave curtains, decease, demise, dissolution, doom, end, exit, expiration, expiry, fate, death, great divide, passage, passing, quietus, sleepWords Related to grave casualty, fatality; martyrdom, self-destruction, self-murder, self-slaughter, suicide; annihilation, destruction, ending, extermination, ruin; assassination, execution, killing, massacre, slaughterNear Antonyms of grave existence, life; creation, genesis, origination, riseAntonyms of grave birth, nativity

3 the state of being dead a terrible fear of the grave Synonyms of grave dead, deadness, death, lifelessness, nothingness, sleepWords Related to grave mortalityNear Antonyms of grave immortality; life span, lifetimeAntonyms of grave existence, life