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
  • It can be read as either a defiant declaration or a bitter lament.
    Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2025
  • This was followed by a reading of Psalm 42, a lament about an isolated believer who is longing for God’s presence.
    NBC News, NBC News, 27 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • But the meeting will be more elegy than transformation.
    Jude Blanchette, Foreign Affairs, 14 Oct. 2022
  • Tell, yell, hell, hello, elegy, tottle, otology, geology, theology.
    John McPhee, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • Ethel Cain: Perverts [Daughters of Cain] Ethel Cain found unlikely pop fandom with Preacher’s Daughter, her 2022 debut album, thanks to its emotional dirges and heavy lyrics.
    Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 10 Jan. 2025
  • The hand drums, played here by Keith, make this one spooky dirge.
    Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 19 July 2024
Noun
  • Column Plug Two Rollie Pemberton A requiem for Trugoy and a rebirth for De La Soul.
    Max Ufberg, hazlitt.net, 10 Jan. 2025
  • No dolphin will ever perform an autopsy, no dingo will read Heidegger, no macaque will write a requiem for piano and violin.
    Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Threnody.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/threnody. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025.

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