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a song with a beautiful lyric
a poet admired for his lyrics
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lyric.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
1581
anacreontic, clerihew, dithyramb, eclogue, elegy, English sonnet, epic, epigram, epode, epopee, epos, georgic, idyll (also idyl), jingle, lament, limerick, madrigal, ode, pastoral, pastorale, psalm, rondeau, rondel (or rondelle), rondelet, sonnet, triolet, villanelle;
blank verse, free verse, minstrelsy, poesy, poetry, versification, vers libre;
they performed a slow, lyric dance for the audience
the film's lyric photography really enhanced its romantic mood
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lyric.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
To the ancient Greeks, anything lyrikos was appropriate to the lyre. That elegant stringed instrument was highly regarded by the Greeks and was used to accompany intensely personal poetry that revealed the thoughts and feelings of the poet. When the adjective lyric, a descendant of lyrikos, was adopted into English in the 1500s, it too referred to things pertaining or adapted to the lyre. Initially, it was applied to poetic forms (such as elegies, odes, or sonnets) that expressed strong emotion, to poets who wrote such works, or to things that were meant to be sung; over time, it was extended to anything musical or rhapsodic. Nowadays, lyric is also used as a noun naming either a type of poem or the words of a song.
First Known Use: 1567
in the meaning defined at sense 1a
See Words from the same yearmetrical (or metric), rhyming (also riming), rhythmic (or rhythmical);
rhapsodic (also rhapsodical);
florid, flowery, grandiloquent, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-flown, ornate, purple;
glamorized (also glamourized), idealized, romanticized;
figurative, metaphoric (or metaphorical), symbolic (also symbolical);
: the words of a song
: a poem that expresses deep personal feelings in a way that is like a song : a lyric poem
: expressing deep feelings in a way that is like a song
: writing lyric poetry
of an opera singer : having a light and pure voice
See words that rhyme with lyric Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for lyric Spanish Central: Translation of lyric Nglish: Translation of lyric for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of lyric for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about lyric
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