as in lament
a composition expressing one's grief over a loss "O Captain! My Captain!" is Walt Whitman's elegy on the death of President Lincoln

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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 elegy Much of the chapter is like an elegy to what would be lost. Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 5 Aug. 2025 Bulgakov’s novel The White Guard, published in 1925 and set at the same time, is an elegy for Tsarist Kyiv that detests both Ukrainian national aspirations and Bolshevik rule. Uilleam Blacker, The Atlantic, 4 June 2025 What if Durham’s vision for the sequel could be turned inside out, undergoing a transformation like The Greatest from retrospective to comeback, elegy to unfinished story. Melina Moe may 19, Literary Hub, 19 May 2025 The Stalemate is part wacky buddy comedy, part poignant Western elegy – and just straight up a ton of fun. Matt Grobar, Deadline, 28 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for elegy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for elegy
Noun
  • Apologies and laments and longing are woven throughout the album, but the speaker doesn’t ask anything of anyone that comes across as especially loud.
    Hanif Abdurraqib, New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Beristain’s lament may sound like a song of the past, but eight years later, that rhythm is returning.
    Lluvia Gaucin, IndyStar, 26 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • There’s nothing shiny and new to get excited about and so the apathy and dirge hasn’t been replaced.
    George Caulkin, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Wylde seemed right at home recreating the droning opening dirge as the band slowed down into a stellar stoney groove throughout a standout moment Saturday night.
    Jim Ryan, Forbes.com, 26 July 2025
Noun
  • Like many of the 27 tracks on her Grammy-winning album of the year, her Cowboy Carter and Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour is a requiem to Black artists who have helped shape country music and a reclamation of Americana for those who have been shut out.
    Megan Thomas, CNN Money, 27 June 2025
  • More than a century later, jazz pianist and composer Bobby West gives her what she was denied: a requiem.
    Philip Martin, Arkansas Online, 19 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Elegy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/elegy. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.

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