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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 Initially buried by its studio, this trickily ambiguous thriller feels like an elegy for the seventies and was later recouped as one of the best films of its era. Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 22 Jan. 2025 Tell, yell, hell, hello, elegy, tottle, otology, geology, theology. John McPhee, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025 Worm’s visualization of his collection, then, is an unwitting elegy of species pushed to the brink of existence by human pressures. The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 8 Jan. 2025 Streams of information flow into and over each other in an elegy about who was who, and when, and why. Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 6 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for elegy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for elegy
Noun
  • Deeply layered and emotionally charged, the work reads like a visual lament, for what’s been lost, what still remains, and the unresolved stories that continue to flow beneath the surface.
    Nel-Olivia Waga, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2025
  • Unfortunately, Curl laments they’re destined for the donation bin.
    Cori Sears, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Over time, dirge came to mean a funeral song or lament.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Returnal Returnal was one of the first exclusives of the PS5 generation; a fabulously grotesque sci-fi horror dirge, and still worth your attention today.
    Luke Winkie, Vulture, 1 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • 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
  • Whether a requiem is due for rom-coms or not, in the meantime there's at least a conveyor belt of cringe to feast upon.
    Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Elegy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/elegy. Accessed 28 Apr. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on elegy

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!