dirgelike

adjective

as in elegiac

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dirgelike
  1. elegiac
  2. melancholy
  3. wailing
  4. lamentable
  5. aching
  6. sorrowful
  7. funeral
  8. doleful
Adjective
  • Harpman was writing in a different era, but the elegiac loneliness of her fiction anticipates our own solitary and screen-bound present.
    — Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
  • The novel thus proceeds in two registers, at once mysterious and elegiac.
    — Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026
Definition of elegiac
Adjective
  • What reads at a casual distance as serene maternal tenderness shifts, on closer inspection, into something more ambivalent—a shade of melancholy that surfaces only when the eye lingers on Mary’s face.
    — Carmen Rosenberg-Miller, Artforum, 6 Aug. 2026
  • Midland put their stamp on the idea by maintaining those mixed emotions of melancholy and excitement; the romance but also the rootlessness of a life spent on the road.
    — Stephen Deusner, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of melancholy
Adjective
  • Sitting opposite an old people’s home in a residential corner of Paris’ 14th arrondissement, La Santé’s unassuming presence is only given away by the occasional wailing siren as prisoners are transported to and from the site.
    — Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025
Definition of wailing
Adjective
  • The diminishing role of the federal government in addressing this crisis is lamentable.
    — Monitor Reader, Christian Science Monitor, 28 July 2026
  • Still furious at her mother, Natalie tentatively chooses to believe Cady but takes a gun along just in case, which turns out to be another lamentable decision.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 10 July 2026
Definition of lamentable
Adjective
  • The homestretch of the drama, however, takes the story in a chilling direction, packing an aching quantity of feeling into a single glance at a security camera as someone climbs into a car and leaves the compound, never to be heard from again.
    — Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 26 May 2026
  • Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain (1997) Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain is an aching, tender slow burn shaped by absence.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
Definition of aching
Adjective
  • Ulysses expresses sorrowful regret for having disobeyed Zeus’ Law – essentially the Golden Rule – in sacking Troy.
    — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 2026
  • Much like their 1990s grunge and alt-rock contemporaries in America, Canada’s Our Lady Peace were writing and recording murky, sorrowful songs about youthful frustration and adult rage, love lost and societal alienation.
    — Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone, 28 June 2026
Definition of sorrowful
Adjective
  • At his San Francisco tour opener and other stops, Burke went all in on a funeral theme.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2026
  • Rather than a celebration, the film plays more like a funeral procession, or perhaps a bedside vigil for a man who has, indeed, seemingly sacrificed his life in pursuit of his art.
    — Naomi Fry, New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2026
Definition of funeral
Adjective
  • Measles is the canary in the coal mine for vaccination and public health, and at this moment, the canary is singing a doleful tune.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2026
  • But if the film occasionally threatens to float away into its own inaccessible realm, Camp’s witty, doleful performance grounds it with a human dimension, albeit not a terribly warm one.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 19 June 2026
Definition of doleful
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.

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dirge
dirgelike
dirges
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Cite this Entry

“Dirgelike.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dirgelike. Accessed 13 Aug. 2026.

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