swan song
noun
Did you know?
Swans don't sing. They whistle or trumpet, or in the case of the swan most common in ponds, the mute swan, they only hiss and snort. But according to ancient legend, the swan does sing one beautiful song in its life-just before it dies. References in English to the dying swan's lovely singing go back as far as Chaucer, but the term swan song itself didn't appear in the language until the 1830s, when Thomas Carlyle used it in Sartor Resartus. Carlyle probably based his "swan song" on the German version of the term, which is Schwanengesang or Schwanenlied.
Examples of swan song in a Sentence
Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 28 May 2026
Liberal hero Stephen Colbert’s long swan song into podcast oblivion showed how clueless Democrats are who worship the rich TV host who lost his job because his show lost $40 million a year for CBS.
—Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 28 May 2026
The fat lady is warming her vocal cords to sing the swan song of a north side Fort Worth mural celebrating the Latino baseball community, according to an Instagram post by artist Juan Velazquez.
—Harrison Mantas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 May 2026
Fans and the media have been speculating who might take up the mantle of the famed British double-agent even before Craig’s swan song in the 2021 blockbuster No Time to Die.
—Tim Lammers, Forbes.com, 15 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Swan song.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/swan%20song. Accessed 2 Jun. 2026.
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