as in lists
a long stated list of things one after another
Nobody wants to deal with a coworker who repeats the same litany of complaints day after day.
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Recent Examples of litanies
Keeping the camera still in a courthouse’s small, windowless chambers, Depardon depicts these face-to-face showdowns as litanies of misery, as the officials make suspects confront the grim circumstances leading to their arrests.
—
Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Hval’s restless melodies and at-times Proustian lyrics trail cigarette smoke or the fragrance of roses toward litanies of memory, all the while deconstructing the very natures of stage performance, recording technology, and digital existence.
—Jenn Pelly, Time, 4 Dec. 2025
Given the linguistic polyphony, even Spanish speakers will need to consult translations to understand her litanies.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 11 Nov. 2025
Like both Chicana Falsa and the matchstick litanies, Cardona’s poems focus both on his adolescence and his family.
—Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
Each night, strange visitors whisper litanies in an unknown tongue.
—Zac Ntim, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Hval’s restless melodies and at-times Proustian lyrics trail cigarette smoke or the fragrance of roses toward litanies of memory, all the while deconstructing the very natures of stage performance, recording technology, and digital existence.
—Jenn Pelly, Time, 4 Dec. 2025
Given the linguistic polyphony, even Spanish speakers will need to consult translations to understand her litanies.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 11 Nov. 2025
Like both Chicana Falsa and the matchstick litanies, Cardona’s poems focus both on his adolescence and his family.
—Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
Each night, strange visitors whisper litanies in an unknown tongue.
—Zac Ntim, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for litanies
Noun
-
The federal lawsuit filed last November and amended in March lists as its defendants Proctor; MSP Sgt.—
Flint McColgan,
Boston Herald,
7 June 2026
-
My mother’s course of study probably furnished them both with lists of novels and critical texts to spend their days with.—
Andrea Bajani,
New Yorker,
7 June 2026
Noun
-
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
9 June 2026
-
The three listings are expected to tally as much as hundreds of billions of dollars in massive sales, both an opportunity for everyday investors to buy into some of the buzziest AI startups and a major test of the market’s appetite for AI firms.—
Clare Duffy,
CNN Money,
8 June 2026
Noun
-
O’Farrell’s sentences — the musicality of her repetitions, the genial warmth of her narration, the visceral pleasures of her imagery — offer comfort against the backdrop of heartbreak so common to her fiction.—
Rachel Vorona Cote,
Vulture,
2 June 2026
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But in Soni’s careful translation, the repetitions and subtle variation of Verma’s poems also achieve a haunting, transcendental resonance.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Litanies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/litanies. Accessed 10 Jun. 2026.
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