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 Not every elegy comes in the form of a dying fall. Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2025 The work is at once an elegy, a historical document and a meditation on tests of survival that gay men face. R. Daniel Foster, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025 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 See All Example Sentences for elegy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for elegy
Noun
  • But a loss is a loss, 1-5 is 1-5, and McDaniel’s lament is pure truth.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The poem ends with the hero’s burial and the laments of his followers.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • At first a dirge, then the tempo rises, and the hymnal swells.
    Jenny Adams, CNN Money, 5 Oct. 2025
  • Further down the lineup, Friday has Bieber collaborator and indie fave Dijon alongside the melodic dirges of Ethel Cain.
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 16 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The Duke of York retreated from public life in November 2019 after a car crash interview with the BBC about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, but attended the requiem mass at Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon.
    Jack Royston, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
  • 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

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Cite this Entry

“Elegy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/elegy. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

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