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
  • The book was compiled by Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell for his 50th birthday and reportedly contained poems, photos and greetings from academics, businesspeople, Epstein's childhood friends and more.
    Dan Gooding Gabe Whisnant, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Sep. 2025
  • The poem was not by Marlowe, for sure.
    Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • To the west, the London Eye pirouettes above the skyline—to the east, Shakespeare’s Globe serves legendary sonnets.
    Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
  • 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
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
  • Archbishop Bernard Hebda addressed some 2,000 people at the vigil, where psalms were sung and the silences burrowed deep in the wide room.
    Jesse Bedayn, Twin Cities, 28 Aug. 2025
  • 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
Noun
  • Guillermo del Toro, whose Pinocchio was conceived as an ode to the human over the machine, was emphatic on the subject.
    Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Arone described another flavor as an ode to a nostalgic treat, and the reference lands.
    Lyndsay C. Green, Freep.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • This is her elegy, her memorial, her voice, her face.
    Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Not every elegy comes in the form of a dying fall.
    Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Clerihew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clerihew. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on clerihew

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!