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 Lachlan Murdoch delivered a brief elegy this morning for shuttered sports streaming joint venture Venu but said Fox is moving ahead with plans to launch a new direct-to-consumer service drawing on all its content and brands by the end of the calendar year. Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 4 Feb. 2025 But The Wickedest, his epic poem released in the United States last week, is not a COVID-era elegy. Juan A. Ramírez, Vogue, 29 Jan. 2025 Initially buried by its studio, this trickily ambiguous thriller feels like an elegy for the seventies and was later recouped as one of the best films of its era. Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 22 Jan. 2025 Tell, yell, hell, hello, elegy, tottle, otology, geology, theology. John McPhee, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for elegy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for elegy
Noun
  • My own experience and reality invalidated and denied, which in her heart today would be a very painful lament.
    Brie Stimson, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2025
  • This episode was just like that, a lot of quick dancing, jazz hands, and even a lament sung by Shauhin, just for the most boring and obvious thing to happen in the end.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 8 May 2025
Noun
  • It’s remained in the company’s repertoire for decades, and the use of Coltrane’s elegy for the love of her life has made that music into two dirges, one for husband John Coltrane and another for the woman on the invisible mourner’s bench honoring and channeling him for the rest of her days.
    Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2025
  • Over time, dirge came to mean a funeral song or lament.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The album thematically focuses on the idea of the afterlife in both a literal and figurative sense, with a touch of Carlile's anecdotal songwriting and requiems for artists' past.
    Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 5 Apr. 2025
  • Whether a requiem is due for rom-coms or not, in the meantime there's at least a conveyor belt of cringe to feast upon.
    Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Elegy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/elegy. Accessed 28 May. 2025.

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