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According to the poet Homer, the Greek god Apollo sometimes took the guise of Paean, physician to the gods. The earliest musical paeans were hymns of thanksgiving and praise that were dedicated to Apollo. They were sung at events ranging from boisterous festivals to public funerals, and they were the traditional marching songs of armies heading into battle. Over time, the word became generalized, and it is now used for any kind of tribute.
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Examples of paean in a Sentence
Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Oct. 2024
The title track, for example, is a paean to his social justice and civil rights heroes — Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy and even the Apache leader Geronimo.
—Paul Liberatore, The Mercury News, 11 Oct. 2024
Make a paean to female desire, by all means, but there’s no fixing up Emmanuelle.
—Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 20 Sep. 2024
People who write paeans to the suburbs, on topics that sit on the cusp between white-collar and blue-collar, are unfashionable these days.
—Christopher Bonanos, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for paean 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'paean.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Paean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paean. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
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paean
noun
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