FCB Health NY Introduces the Missing Word
In English, there is a word for someone who loses a spouse: widow. There is a word for someone who loses their parents: orphan.
Until now, there has been no word for a parent who loses a child.
Today, that changes.
FCB Health NY, in partnership with the nonprofits Visioning Beyond Violence and Youth Alive!, has launched The Missing Word, introducing a new word to recognize one of the most devastating—and increasingly common—human experiences.
That word is OLLIPSENT (oh-LIP-sint): a parent who has lost a child.
The word was developed with linguist Chelsea Frazier and revealed first to parents whose children were killed by gun violence—the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States.1*
Every day in America:
• 7 young people are killed by gun violence2†
• 2,526 youth die each year2†
Yet until now, the parents left behind had no word to describe who they are.
“Without a word, grief can feel invisible,” said Frazier. “Naming something gives it recognition. It tells people: you exist. Your loss exists.”
The word ollipsent draws from the Greek root ellipēs, meaning “lacking” or “incomplete.” It reflects both absence and continuation—the enduring bond between parent and child, even after loss.
For parents, the impact was immediate.
“I am an ollipsent,” said Marilyn Washington-Harris, whose son was killed by gun violence. “Now we have a name. Now people can see us.”
Congresswoman Lucy McBath, who lost her 17-year-old son Jordan to gun violence, described the experience:
“This kind of grief lives in your body. Parents move forward because they have to—but we never fully heal.”
The Missing Word was created not only to acknowledge grief—but to make it visible. Because recognition is the first step toward healing. And toward change.
By introducing ollipsent into public language and culture, the project aims to give grieving parents a way to identify themselves, find one another, and ensure their children—and their stories—are never erased.
Because when something has a name, it can no longer be ignored.
Learn more at themissingword.org
