clerihew

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
  • Janet started painting again, and Mary has been writing poems.
    Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2025
  • Charged with energy and insight, these poems blend intimate moments with sweeping commentary.
    Julia Hass, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • These tablets from the end of the fourth millennium BCE show that writing did not emerge fully formed overnight, and that it was developed not to write sonnets, but receipts.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Aug. 2025
  • Almost too passionately anguished, Austen is a sonnet played on the fortepiano, while Winslet is Liszt banged out on a Steinway.
    Tom Gliatto, People.com, 19 July 2025
Noun
  • That celebrated epigram is delivered by the character of Octave, who is the greatest creation of Renoir’s career—not least because he’s played by Renoir in a performance that’s essentially a self-portrait, even an onscreen self-creation.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 July 2025
  • It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story.
    Jann E. Freed, Forbes.com, 18 June 2025
Noun
  • There are some touching moments, dirty limericks and a good balance of characters presented by veterans of the scene.
    Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 2 Aug. 2025
  • They were trained to repeat dirty jokes and limericks about Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer to customers.
    Rachel Hale, USA Today, 10 July 2025
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
  • Kretzmer-Seed felt strongly about the inclusion of psalms from the Hallel service as well as a Spanish-Portuguese prayer for those in captivity, which was originally written for victims of the Spanish Inquisition.
    Marla Brown Fogelman, Sun Sentinel, 12 Aug. 2025
  • We're bound by the same beliefs, the same psalms, and the same sacred pursuit of liberty.
    Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 11 June 2025
Noun
  • In another section, male nudes celebrate the body with an ode to classic perfection, enhancing strength and symmetry through a refined use of light and composition.
    Andrea Onate, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2025
  • So, Ransom decided to use some creativity with his first NFL number, while also creating an ode to his father, Nathan.
    DIAMOND VENCES, Charlotte Observer, 3 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The work is at once an elegy, a historical document and a meditation on tests of survival that gay men face.
    R. Daniel Foster, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • He’s made biopics (Malcolm X) and 9/11 elegies (25th Hour).
    Tim Grierson, Vulture, 16 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Clerihew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clerihew. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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