as in lament
a composition expressing one's grief over a loss the composer's cello concerto was composed as a moving threnody for his late wife

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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 threnody His diary shrank to a litany of suffering and a threnody for what might have been. Sara Wheeler, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2018 Most critics acknowledged the score’s beautiful moments, especially Cleopatra’s death scene, in which the character’s plaintive lyrical lines are capped by a chilling choral threnody. Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 22 Dec. 2017 Needless to say, Murray’s threnody for Europe is as fundamentally incoherent as its late-19th-century originals. Pankaj Mishra, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2017 Threnody in X (FTF), Soda Pop (FTF), Corn Hives (FTF), Facts (FTF), Sophie Brown, WIRED, 9 Aug. 2011
Recent Examples of Synonyms for threnody
Noun
  • This is a lament for something that is out of reach, almost strange to the narrator.
    James Folta, Literary Hub, 17 June 2025
  • Instead, Nick takes a seat next to Joseph and laments not listening to June, who told him so long ago to quit all this.
    Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 20 May 2025
Noun
  • Vo’s ongoing examination of empire and identity unfolds here as both monument and elegy.
    Nel-Olivia Waga, Forbes.com, 17 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
Noun
  • After learning of the loss of the iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior and the deaths of all 29 crew members from Newsweek, Gord lifted passages from the article and put them to a dreamy dirge: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
    Ryan Craig, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025
  • Though it was written around the time of Malibu’s Woolsey fire, the 14-minute long dirge that encompasses flames in Malibu and a cougar that roams the hills took on a new and sinister meaning in the aftermath of the more recent fires.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 19 May 2025
Noun
  • 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
  • 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

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“Threnody.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/threnody. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.

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