swan song

noun

1
: a song of great sweetness said to be sung by a dying swan
2
: a farewell appearance or final act or pronouncement

Did you know?

Swans don't sing. They whistle or trumpet, or in the case of the swan most common in ponds, the mute swan, they only hiss and snort. But according to ancient legend, the swan does sing one beautiful song in its life-just before it dies. References in English to the dying swan's lovely singing go back as far as Chaucer, but the term swan song itself didn't appear in the language until the 1830s, when Thomas Carlyle used it in Sartor Resartus. Carlyle probably based his "swan song" on the German version of the term, which is Schwanengesang or Schwanenlied.

Examples of swan song in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Bruce Miller, an executive producer who oversaw The Handmaid’s Tale for Seasons 1 through 5, stepped away for the Hulu series’ swan song in order to focus on developing The Testaments. Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 25 Mar. 2025 The cast for the show’s swan song is also set to feature Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel, Sam Jaeger, Ever Carradine, and Josh Charles. Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2025 This will be Sydney Parrish’s swan song, as the senior overcame an early-season knee injury, which forced her to miss five games. Michael Waterloo, The Athletic, 16 Mar. 2025 But the album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and tied Counterparts as the band’s highest-charting album in America, is a fitting swan song, thundering and anthemic to the very end. Al Shipley, SPIN, 12 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for swan song

Word History

First Known Use

1831, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of swan song was in 1831

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Cite this Entry

“Swan song.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/swan%20song. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

swan song

noun
: a farewell appearance or final act or public statement
Etymology

from the legend that a dying swan sings a beautiful song

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