Definition of threnodynext
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 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
  • In the work, a diverse cast of women, one after another, hold a single note as a lament for the dead.
    Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews.com, 12 May 2026
  • Warnings, laments, and odes to renewal were expressed pictorially as dying days under bleeding heavens, belching volcanoes, proud icebergs, lavish rainbows amid spangling, mist-suffusing sunlight and dawns of peace and hope.
    Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
Noun
  • To say an elegy by heart/to zero our dying before birth.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
  • The show, a sort of elegy for Gen X, opens with a flash-forward to July 16, 1999, the final hours of Carolyn and John.
    Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • This offers respite from the music ever feeling too dirge-like.
    Brendan Hay, SPIN, 1 May 2026
  • The pioneering alt-country band returns with its first album in 30 years—a set of cryptic, languid dirges that feels defiantly out-of-time.
    Zach Schonfeld, Pitchfork, 17 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • The biggest difference is probably how Laurie plays the final requiem.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 4 May 2026
  • Any story is a history in which politics and event are portrayed in human terms—not as tract or politics but as inquiry, warning, requiem.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Apr. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Threnody.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/threnody. Accessed 19 May. 2026.

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