panegyric
noun
-ˈjī-rik
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On certain fixed dates throughout the year, the ancient Greeks would come together for religious meetings. Such gatherings could range from hometown affairs to great national assemblies, but large or small, the meeting was called a panēgyris. That name comes from pan, meaning "all," and agyris, meaning "assembly." At those assemblies, speakers provided the main entertainment, and they delivered glowing orations extolling the praises of present civic leaders and reliving the past glories of Greek cities. To the Greeks, those laudatory speeches were panēgyrikos, which means "of or for a panēgyris." Latin speakers ultimately transformed panēgyrikos into the noun panegyricus, and English speakers adapted that Latin term to form panegyric.
Examples of panegyric in a Sentence
Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2024
For example, Kenneth Khachigian, chief speechwriter for former President Ronald Reagan, wrote a panegyric about her for The Wall Street Journal, which went so far as to compare her to the Gipper.
—Robert Robb, CNN, 31 Oct. 2022
At Night Market, a young Filipina chef named Strawberry conjured a mouthwatering panegyric to Middle East cuisine.
—Christopher P. Baker, Travel + Leisure, 2 Mar. 2022
Leave it to Grant Park Music Festival artistic director Carlos Kalmar to make sense of a head-scratcher of a season closer: A sprawling, somewhat obscure military panegyric by Handel.
—Hannah Edgar, chicagotribune.com, 21 Aug. 2021
Yet, once the protagonist Vellitt Boe leaves her capricious, cruel fantasy realm behind, there follows a panegyric to this world.
—Siddhartha Deb, The New Republic, 19 Mar. 2021
As this panegyric suggests, Charles’s political career in the United States was dead on arrival.
—David Klion, The New Republic, 24 Sep. 2019
And all of the above is unbeknownst to Grace, who, in her speech at the wedding feast, delivers a panegyric to her parents for their total fabulosity, and whose life is about to be upended.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2019
Schlesinger’s liberal panegyrics can still be read with pleasure, even if one winces at his reluctance to abide any serious criticism of his idols.
—Michael Kazin, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Panegyric.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/panegyric. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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panegyric
noun
-ˈjī-rik
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