clerihew

Definition of clerihewnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of clerihew Edited by Dava Sobel NOTE: A clerihew is a four-line poetic format invented in 1905 by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who wrote humorous rhymes about all manner of persons, making frivolous fun of their names. Melissa Dehner, Scientific American, 26 Mar. 2021 Easy to write and fun to read, entrants were asked to write a clerihew that describes a famous scientist or other person, or event closely associated with fire. William Gurstelle, WIRED, 16 Aug. 2011
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clerihew
Noun
  • Far from moderating political passions, Freneau stoked hatred of his political rivals, the Federalists, and their leader, Alexander Hamilton, even publishing an anti-Semitic poem comparing Hamilton’s work at the Treasury Department to that of Jewish moneylenders.
    Jeffrey Rosen, The Atlantic, 6 June 2026
  • The film is a re-telling of Homer’s poem about Odysseus’ long journey home.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 4 June 2026
Noun
  • In his gorgeous and arresting debut, Nick Martino hurtles through a variety of forms—from sonnets to visual poems to works of visual art—to vividly portray and reflect on a teenager’s world during and after the speaker’s parents’ divorce and his father’s incarceration.
    Craig Morgan Teicher, Literary Hub, 1 June 2026
  • My expertise, for example, is in the African American sonnet tradition.
    Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 12 May 2026
Noun
  • By greatly expanding the dimensions of his images, with their muted palettes, tight cropping, found symmetries, and laconic wit, had the maestro of the photographic epigram betrayed his subtractive aesthetic?
    James Quandt, Artforum, 2 June 2026
  • Johnson is the author of the epigrams, but Boswell is very much the co-author.
    David Frum, The Atlantic, 27 May 2026
Noun
  • He was also known for his haikus and limericks, including some written to summarize ethics.
    Elliott Wenzler, Denver Post, 2 Apr. 2026
  • These can then be assembled to capture the ladder of logical complexity: patterns of patterns, such as limericks or subject-verb agreement.
    Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, villanelle was simply the French term for an Italian country song, and during the Renaissance, poets often used the title for their work regardless of a poem’s specific structure.
    The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Elongated and paved with bricks, the path is a closed form, a kind of physical villanelle that thwarts the experience of continuity or the feeling of finitude.
    Hamilton Cain, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
Noun
  • Over the course of Gregory Orr’s long career, his poems have become increasingly incantatory, more and more like chants or psalms, repeating, reformulating, reaching for the edges of the same rich metaphors.
    Craig Morgan Teicher, Literary Hub, 1 June 2026
  • The epitome of that tradition is Choral Evensong, an evening service of hymns, psalms and prayers laid out by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of the Church of England, in 1549.
    ABC News, ABC News, 5 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Design a kitchen with a cozy ode to tradition and a mix of modern elements to make the heart of your home feel fresh and rustic at the same time.
    Caley Sturgill, Southern Living, 6 June 2026
  • The top of the Garden Pavilion is covered in solar panels, which are feet away from a food garden that is an ode to the White House kitchen garden Michelle Obama planted in 2009.
    Tara Molina, CBS News, 4 June 2026
Noun
  • When The Last Ship, a musical that serves as an elegy to Wallsend, the hardscrabble Northern England shipyard town Sting grew up in, debuted on Broadway in 2014, the critical reception was disappointing.
    Devon Ivie, Vulture, 4 June 2026
  • Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and newcomer Luther Ford co-star in this elegy defiantly tethered to life.
    David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 22 May 2026

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“Clerihew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clerihew. Accessed 11 Jun. 2026.

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