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
  • Prominent among these are baseless critiques of the NAEP itself (lauded as the gold standard of achievement measures) and a lament that the science of reading — recently endorsed by more than 40 states — has failed.
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 6 Apr. 2025
  • In classical terms, this begins as an Adagio in D minor — a slow lament led by a solo cello, that accelerates into a chaotic swell of strings.
    Kristen S. Hé, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Eephus is an elegy, but with just the barest hint of sentimentality—a shrugging send-off that simultaneously cares deeply about America’s pastime.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2025
  • Lachlan Murdoch delivered a brief elegy this morning for shuttered sports streaming joint venture Venu but said Fox is moving ahead with plans to launch a new direct-to-consumer service drawing on all its content and brands by the end of the calendar year.
    Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 4 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • 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
  • On the final night, one of the regulars hired a Scotsman in a kilt to play a bagpipe dirge.
    Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • 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
  • The funeral procession begins with a sorrowful requiem but transitions into a celebration of life — reminding us that life extends beyond death, that grief is not the absence of love but an extension of it.
    Mathew Holloway, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Feb. 2025

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“Threnody.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/threnody. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

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