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To the ancient Greeks, anything lyrikos was appropriate to the lyre. That elegant stringed instrument was highly regarded by the Greeks and was used to accompany intensely personal poetry that revealed the thoughts and feelings of the poet. When the adjective lyric, a descendant of lyrikos, was adopted into English in the 1500s, it too referred to things pertaining or adapted to the lyre. Initially, it was applied to poetic forms (such as elegies, odes, or sonnets) that express strong emotion, to poets who write such works, or to things meant to be sung. Over time, it was extended to anything musical or rhapsodic. Nowadays, lyric is also used as a noun naming either a type of poem or the words of a song.
Synonyms
Examples of lyric in a Sentence
Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
In addition to his wife, who wrote the album’s lyrics, Gilmour enlisted his 22-year-old daughter, Romany, to sing and play harp on the LP; there’s also a track constructed around an old recording of Wright from 2007.
—Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
Tasha Tsiaperas, Axios, 4 Nov. 2024
While she’s dipped her toes into lyric writing before and recorded some relative obscurities in the jazz catalog, she’s often thought of as a neo-traditionalist Great American Songbook type.
—Steve Hochman, SPIN, 10 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near lyric
Cite this Entry
“Lyric.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lyric. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
lyric
1 of 2 noun
lyric
2 of 2 adjective
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