Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.
- adj. Relating to or constituting a poem in this category, such as a sonnet or an ode.
- adj. Of or relating to a writer of poems in this category.
- adj. Lyrical.
- adj. Music Having a singing voice of light volume and modest range.
- adj. Music Of, relating to, or being musical drama, especially opera: the lyric stage.
- adj. Music Having a pleasing succession of sounds; melodious.
- adj. Music Of or relating to the lyre or harp.
- adj. Music Appropriate for accompaniment by the lyre.
- n. A lyric poem.
- n. Music The words of a song. Often used in the plural.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining or adapted to the lyre or harp; fit to be sung to an accompaniment; hence, pertaining to or characteristic of song; suggestive of music or song.
- Writing for or as if for the lyre, or with musical effect; composing songs, or poems of a song-like character: as, a lyric poet.
- n. A composer of lyric poems.
- n. A lyric composition or poem.
- n. A verse of the kind commonly used in lyric poetry.
- To sing in a lyrical way.
Wiktionary
- adj. poetry Of, or relating to a type of poetry (such as a sonnet or ode) that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style
- adj. Of, or relating to a writer of such poetry
- adj. lyrical
- adj. Having a light singing voice of modest range
- adj. Of, or relating to musical drama and opera
- adj. melodious
- adj. Of, or relating to the lyre (or sometimes the harp)
- n. A lyric poem.
- n. also in plural The words of a song or other vocal music. The singular form often refers to a part of the words, whereas the plural form can refer to all of the words.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to a lyre or harp.
- adj. Fitted to be sung to the lyre appropriate for song; suitable for or suggestive of singing; -- of music or poetry.
- adj. expressing deep personal emotion; -- said especially of poetry which expresses the individual emotions of the poet.
- n. A lyric poem; a lyrical composition.
- n. rare A composer of lyric poems.
- n. A verse of the kind usually employed in lyric poetry; -- used chiefly in the
plural . - n. The words of a song.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a short poem of songlike quality
- adj. expressing deep emotion
- n. the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number
- adj. of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses emotion (often in a songlike way)
- adj. used of a singer or singing voice that is light in volume and modest in range
- adj. relating to or being musical drama
- v. write lyrics for (a song)
Etymologies
- From French lyrique, or its source, Latin lyricus, from Ancient Greek λυρικός, from λύρα ("lyre"). (Wiktionary)
- French lyrique, of a lyre, from Old French, from Latin lyricus, from Greek lurikos, from lura, lyre. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Each time she sang the title lyric, Zachy belted out "YES!”
The Wall Street Journal: I Just Called to Say, Ahem, I, Uhh, Love You
“I have not interpreted the term lyric so rigidly as to exclude sonnets, ballads, elegiac verse, or even pieces of almost pure description.”
“Dear God, I hate myself" - the title lyric of the title track of”
“Set opener "Comin 'Home" instantaneously grabbed the attention of the audience, as Green and his electric guitar eased gently into a warmingly bluesy repetition of the title lyric”
“The title lyric itself was misheard as "use your imagination.”
“Jim Croce played Lothario in the title lyric to "Time In a Bottle," only to be misheard as the far less romantic "Mime in a brothel.”
“Part-time Encinitas resident, the late George Harrison, had his title lyric to Got My Mind Set On You misheard as "Oh God, my mom sat on you.”
“But since it is most commonly found by itself in short poems which we call lyric, we may say that the characteristic of the lyric is that it is the product of the pure poetic energy unassociated with other energies, and that lyric and poetry are synonymous terms.”
“As it was with metre and metaphor and description, so it was also with the indefinable something which we call lyric quality: the something which sings to our soul, and which sends a thrill of delight through our nerves or a gust of emotion across our nature in the same direct way as do the notes of certain voices, the phrases of certain pieces of music: instantaneously, unreasoningly and unerringly.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lyric’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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Music
lyric, rhythm, song, hymn, melody, riff, tune, chant, chorus, requiem, beat, cadence and 2 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-...
Words that have been used as baby names, including virtue names, nature names, place names, etc.
The title is an actual name given to a Puritan boy in the 17th century.faith, hope, grace, charity, chastity, prudence, patience, temperance, river, phoenix, stone, violet and 455 more...
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-ic ending
Words ending in ic, tic or nic.
clastic, elastic, caustic, spastic, frantic, lactic, moronic, ironic, panic, doric, diplomatic, bureaucratic and 202 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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rich words
auburn, aureole, relic, reliquary, aureate, umber, lyric, elegy, requiem, jacinth, sable, penumbra and 95 more...
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Foxtrot's list
afternoon delight, almost unreal, full of spark, dazzle n daze, alarming stride, rushing tide, double dagger, in the nude, constant pressure, widow maker, bourbon on the rocks, air fare holme and 311 more...
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Beautiful Words
phoenix, felicity, glacial, bell, synthesis, peregrine, translucent, transcend, salient, pluperfect, pluvial, aqueous and 94 more...
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christy927's list
...all my favorite words...
chrysalis, mahogany, indigo, elysian, rubenesque, cataclysmic, scythe, archaic, gaelic, trollop, sycamore, canopy and 279 more...
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Words suggested in response to Funk's...
In response to Wilfred J. Funk's "ten most beautiful words in the English language" list of 1932.
beer, rum, rye, sauterne, sherry, brandy, bourbon, Scotch, champagne, cocktail, lyric, serenity and 137 more...
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Facade
civilization, illumination, clone, danger, enigma, garden, green, healer, laugh, lord, pledge, poem and 122 more...
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Love
A general collection of the sort of words that make me happy when I hear or read them in everyday conversation and writing.
velleities, discombobulated, boggle, breathtaking, enchanting, siren, luscious, moment, fiasco, delirium, darling, ethereal and 215 more...
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women's experimental writing course
semantics, syntax, parataxis, metonymy, ekphrasis, lyric, subjectivity, objectivity, referant, signifier, conjunctive, phrase and 39 more...
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deliriumslibrarian's Words
hunangi, hurdygurdy, elemental, wild, wildkind, kenning, convivencia, feminista, warrior, liminal, ellipsis, elision and 23 more...
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Musical Encirclement
harmony, dissonance, dissonant, lyric, hymn, melody, nocturne, rhythm, sonorous, dissonant, caterwaul, concertina and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lyric.

thesaraheffect it's lyrical Sep 19, 2009
lyric something about this word i like... can't place it... May 1, 2008