gravamen

Meanings

Noun

A grievance complained of.
A grievance complained of.
A document sent by the Lower House of Convocation to the Upper House to inform the latter of certain grievances in the church.
The essence or ground of a complaint.
The essence or most important aspect of a piece of writing, a point of argument, etc.; the gist.
A formal charge or complaint.

Origin / 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.

Synonyms

bowels, brass tacks, core, crux, deets, details, drift, essence, gist, gravamen, guts, heart, heart and soul, heartstring, heartstrings, inwardness, kernel, marrow, meat, moral of the story, nature, nitty-gritty, nub, nuts and bolts, ousia, pith, punctum saliens, quiddity, quintessence, soul, spirit, stuff, substance, tenor, whatness

Scrabble Score: 14

gravamen is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
gravamen is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
gravamen is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

gravamen is a valid Words With Friends word