threnody means A song or poem of lamentation or mourning for a dead person; a dirge; an elegy. It carries an Arena rating of 1951, earned across 153 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, threnody ranks #681 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,204 of 17,105 for Most Storied Words, #2,010 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,373 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
threnody is pronounced /ˈθɹɛn.ə.di/.
Why “threnody” is a great word
THRENODY — [Noun] A song, hymn, or poem of lamentation or mourning for the dead. From Ancient Greek θρηνῳδία (thrēnōidía, 'lamentation'), from thrēnos ('dirge, lament') + ōidē ('song, ode'). First attested in English in the 1630s. Unlike an elegy, which can be a meditative, literary reflection on mortality, or a dirge, which emphasizes a functional, processional lament, a threnody is the artful fusion of grief and melody, a structured cry. It is the keening chorus of a Greek tragedy, the solemn polyphony of a Renaissance motet, and the slow, deliberate cadence of a bluesman's final verse—a conscious, beautiful shaping of a cry so that it might outlast the silence that follows.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek θρηνῳδία (thrēnōidía, “lamentation”). Compare the New Latin thrēnōdia.
noun
- A song or poem of lamentation or mourning for a dead person; a dirge; an elegy.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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