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
  • Last month, Universal Pictures released a teaser trailer for The Odyssey, adapted from Homer's ancient Greek poem of the same name.
    Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE, 7 Jan. 2026
  • The whimsical term has also been the title of countless poems, songs and books about remarkable coincidences or eureka moments.
    Juliana Kim, NPR, 7 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • Some have suggested that the Bard had romantic liaisons with men, in part implied by sonnets that are charged with homoerotic elements.
    Nathan Smith, Time, 26 Nov. 2025
  • By James Folta | July 17, 2025 Is Brad Lander’s original Shakespeare in the Park sonnet any good?
    Eve Dunbar, lithub.com, 13 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • Holmes’ feed is a babbling stream of self-help epigrams, ankle-deep reflections and many, many photos of herself.
    Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 10 Dec. 2025
  • 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
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
  • Tutivillus, who totted up all the mistakes clergymen made when singing hymns or reciting psalms.
    JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The basilica was temporarily shut down on Monday, Oct. 13, and prayers and psalms were said as holy water was showered on the altar, according to the outlet.
    Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • An ode to some of our favorite detectives and ADAs from the past 35 years.
    Allison DeGrushe, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Jan. 2026
  • For this collection, each bobblehead is numbered up to 1,776, an ode to 1776.
    Nikki DeMentri, CBS News, 7 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • These books can be read as comedies of cognitive dissonance or as melancholy elegies for the very possibility of closure.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
  • Public Theater Else Went’s epic elegy to the great loves and losses of high school captured a certain moment — the precarious turn of the millennium — and a certain kind of teenage terror and heartache with precision and compassion.
    Sara Holdren, Vulture, 4 Dec. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Clerihew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clerihew. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.

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