Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A farewell or final appearance, action, or work.
- n. The beautiful legendary song sung only once by a swan in its lifetime, as it is dying.
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic A final performance or accomplishment, especially one before retirement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a final performance or effort (especially before retirement)
Etymologies
- A calque of German Schwanenlied(from Schwan + Lied) or Schwanengesang; from the belief that the mute swan sings before dying. (Wiktionary)
- From the belief that the swan sings as it dies. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“His swan song in a Yankees uniform was beautiful and explosive all at one, for it allowed him to show a worldwide-viewing audience that he could still abuse pitchers on either side of the globe.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘swan song’.
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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the list
i live in a human..., escapism, crush, infinite, alleviate, gallows, scapegallows, violet, downfall, whisper, watch-word, haven and 15 more...
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Idioms
Idioms and idiomatic expressions
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the brothers
factotem, extrapolation, antinomy, antenome, pusillanimous, capons, caftan, pejorative, cropper, cowl, perfidious, fichu and 138 more...
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that's just beastly!
cat-o-nine-tails, snake in the grass, puppy love, white elephant, crocodile tears, monkey business, keep the wolf fro..., culture vulture, black sheep of th..., scapegoat, ugly duckling, swan song and 260 more...
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xyzprincess's Words
crabwise, virtu, peripatetic, idyll, trencherman, equivocate, flummery, hoi polloi, pixilated, albatross, wangle, bodacious and 170 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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dirtysnowflake's Words
snowflake, parisian, couture, mystery, ruby, clandestine, corset, october, list, touch, caress, aboulia and 156 more...
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Wirds of a Feather
Phrases and figures of speech in which birds are featured. Or feathers. Or such like.
a little bird tol..., to have an albatr..., birds of a feathe..., in the catbird seat, cold turkey, to cook one's goose, don't count your ..., to have one's duc..., to eat crow, a feather in one'..., for the birds, flip the bird and 122 more...
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S is for Sweater Puppy
My S Words
secret agent, sweater puppy, skivvies, soda jerk, surly, space madness, sad sack, sadsack, scoundrel, scrabble, shaken teddy bear..., saucy and 181 more...
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Dictionary.com Words of the Days of 2001
1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008
acclimate, stentorian, expeditious, proselytize, equable, sacrosanct, indefatigable, gravid, hyperbole, funereal, flibbertigibbet, vet and 353 more...
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Awesome
Awesome words
mimsy, concupiscence, tumescent, ophidian, houri, vorpal, cyprian, Delphic, incipient, effete, existential, loam and 289 more...
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Favoritter
tiptoe, paw, flutter, winged, onto, present, glisten, bitter, molecule, forever and a day, collapse, drift and 23 more...
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Words I like and know of their meanin...
zenith, anathema, maelstrom, sardonic, juxtapose, belladonna, facade, rigor mortis, fiasco, chimera, gallivant, archaic and 64 more...
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Fun Phrases & Idioms
dust up, wreak havoc, the willies, cash cow, average joe, drama queen, fancy pants, houston we have a..., in your face, just deserts, kangaroo court, quality time and 78 more...
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idioms
don't shoot the m..., blood from a turnip, a watched pot nev..., underfoot, to each his own, cut to the chase, cut the mustard, grand purpose, pass the buck, throw under the bus, scapegoat, strike a chord and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for swan song.
oroboros Trumpeter's tune? Sep 25, 2009
gangerh Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Mar 13, 2008
treeseed The phrase "Swan song" is a reference to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely mute during its lifetime, except for singing a single, heartbreakingly beautiful song just before it dies.
It has been known since antiquity that this belief is false. In A.D. 77. Pliny the Elder refuted it in Natural History (book 10, chapter xxxii: olorum morte narratur flebilis cantus, falso, ut arbitror, aliquot experimentis, "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false").
By extension, swan song has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment.
_Wikipedia Feb 1, 2008