tears: the water shed in weeping, and by extension the weeping and grief itself
This word names tears, the drops that spill from the eyes in sorrow. It is the physical evidence of grief, seen and counted by others: Hezekiah is told God has seen his tears, and the psalmist asks God to store his tears in a bottle and keep them on a record.
More often the poets treat tears as a flowing substance rather than a few drops. They run down like a river, soak a bed through the night, and even become something a person eats and drinks: bread of tears, tears served as a daily meal. In this way the single word can stand for the whole experience of weeping, not just the moisture on the face.
Because of this range, tears in these texts frequently point beyond themselves to mourning, pleading, and loss. The hope held out against them is equally physical: a day when God himself wipes every tear from every face and takes weeping away for good.