elegy

noun

el·​e·​gy ˈe-lə-jē 

plural elegies

1

: a poem in elegiac couplets

2

a

: a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead

b

: something (such as a speech) resembling such a song or poem

3

a

: a pensive or reflective poem that is usually nostalgic or melancholy

b

: a short pensive musical composition

Did you know?

Elegy vs. Eulogy

Both elegy and eulogy may be used about writing or speech in remembrance of a person who has passed away, and this semantic overlap creates the potential for confusion. Elegy (which may be traced to the Greek word elegos, “song of mourning”) commonly refers to a song or poem lamenting one who is dead; the word may also refer somewhat figuratively to a nostalgic poem, or to a kind of musical composition. While eulogy is also commonly found referring to words about the deceased, its basic meaning, both in English and in the Greek language from which it was borrowed, is “praise.” Formed from the Greek roots eu “good” and logos “speech,” a eulogy is an encomium given for one who is either living or dead. If you are praising your partner’s unsurpassed beauty or commending the virtues of the deceased at a funeral, you are delivering a eulogy; if you are composing a lamenting reminiscence about a person who has long since passed, you are writing an elegy.

Synonyms

• dirge
• lament
• requiem
• threnody

Examples of elegy in a Sentence

“O Captain! My Captain!” is Walt Whitman's elegy on the death of President Lincoln

Recent Examples on the Web

It’s remained in the company’s repertoire for decades, and the use of Coltrane’s elegy for the love of her life has made that music into two dirges, one for husband John Coltrane and another for the woman on the invisible mourner’s bench honoring and channeling him for the rest of her days. —Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2025

Lucas’s final film is a kind of elegy for an entire style of personal blockbuster filmmaking, Williams’ funeral music in the last moments fitting for the director’s last moments behind the camera. —Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 28 Apr. 2025

The title is borrowed from Elizabeth Alexander’s fourth collection persona poems, historical narratives, jazz riffs, sonnets, elegies, and a sequence of ars poetica which examines the Black experience through the lens of the slave rebellion on the Amistad and nineteenth-century American art. —Natasha Gural, Forbes.com, 4 Apr. 2025

Eephus is an elegy, but with just the barest hint of sentimentality—a shrugging send-off that simultaneously cares deeply about America’s pastime. —David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin elegia poem in elegiac couplets, from Greek elegeia, elegeion, from elegos song of mourning

First Known Use

1501, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

elegy

noun

el·​e·​gy ˈel-ə-jē 

plural elegies

: a poem or song expressing sorrow especially for one who is dead

elegiac

ˌel-ə-ˈjī-ək

adjective

elegize

ˈel-ə-ˌjīz

verb