elegy means A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation. It carries an Arena rating of 1798, earned across 20 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, elegy ranks #225 of 42,789 for Qualifying, #369 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #938 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,817 of 17,105 for Most Storied Words.
elegy is pronounced /ˈɛlɪd͡ʒi/.
Why “elegy” is a great word
A formal poem of serious reflection, most often a lament for the dead. From Middle French elegie, from Latin elegīa, from Ancient Greek ἐλεγείᾱ (elegeíā), an ellipsis of ἐλεγείᾱ ᾠδή (elegeíā ōidḗ, 'an elegiac song'). Unlike a dirge, which is a raw, funereal chant meant to pace the burial procession, or an ode, which soars in exaltation of its subject, the elegy is a crafted vessel for grief. It is the measured tread of iambic pentameter in a country churchyard, the private ache of a poet for a drowned friend, the carved marble of a verse that outlasts its stone—the art of holding a specific loss up to the indifferent sky, and in doing so, making the private sorrow universal.
Etymology
From Middle French elegie, from Latin elegīa, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐλεγείᾱ (elegeíā), ellipsis of ἐλεγείᾱ ᾠδή (elegeíā ōidḗ, “an elegiac song”).
noun
- A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation.e.g.“funeral elegy”
- A composition of mournful character.
- A classical poem written in elegiac meter
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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