gravamen

Meaning

1. A grievance complained of.
2. A grievance complained of.
3. The essence or ground of a complaint.
4. (broadly) The essence or most important aspect of a piece of writing, a point of argument, etc.; the gist.
5. (obsolete) A formal charge or complaint.

Synonyms

grievance

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɡɹəˈveɪmɛn/

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin gravāmen (“physical inconvenience”) and Medieval Latin gravāmen (“grievance”), from Latin gravāre + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension). Gravāre is the present active infinitive of gravō (“to burden, weigh down; to oppress”), from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious; hard, troublesome”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- (“heavy”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
The plural form gravamina is derived from Late Latin gravāmina.