Dictionary — Entry No. 0677
그리워요
geuriwoyo · verb
그리워요
geuriwoyo
[geu-ree-WOH-yoh]
verbbeginner
Meaning
I miss you / I long for you — the polite present form of the irregular verb 그립다. Unlike 보고 싶어요 (I want to see you), 그리워요 carries a deeper, more poetic ache: a longing for something distant, lost, or irretrievable. It is one of the most lyrical words in the Korean language.
K-Pop & K-Drama Context
그리워요 and its noun form 그리움 (longing) permeate Korean ballads and poetry. BTS’s ‘Spring Day (봄날)’ is essentially a meditation on 그리움 — missing someone so deeply the season itself feels wrong without them. K-Pop fans use 그리워요 to describe the longing between concert tours, and K-Drama finales are designed to leave audiences feeling this exact emotion.
Example Sentences
너무 그리워요.
Neomu geuriwoyo.
I miss you so much. (a deep, aching longing — heavier than just ‘I want to see you’)
그 시절이 그리워.
Geu sijeori geuriwo.
I miss those days. (nostalgic longing for a past time — casual form)
보고 싶고 그리워.
Bogo sipgo geuriwo.
I want to see you and I long for you. (the two are often stacked for emotional emphasis)
⚠️ Don’t use geuriwoyo when…
그리워요 is more literary and emotionally weighty than 보고 싶어요 — using it casually (like texting someone you saw this morning) sounds melodramatic. Reserve it for genuine, deep longing. Second, the base form 그립다 conjugates irregularly: ㅂ→워, giving 그리워, not 그립아 — the same ㅂ-irregular pattern as 미워요.
🎵 Heard In
- K-Drama: Twenty-Five Twenty-One (스물다섯 스물하나) — the entire drama is built on 그리움, culminating in Na Hee-do’s final voiceover about the people she has loved and irrevocably lost to time.
- K-Pop: BTS — Spring Day (봄날)
ℹ️ Editorial Note: The cultural context and example usage are for educational reference only. Artist names, song titles, and drama references are used descriptively to illustrate vocabulary in context. This content is AI-assisted and reviewed for accuracy. For official information, please refer to the respective artists’ or studios’ official channels.