Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A poem or song of mourning or lamentation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A song of lamentation; a dirge; especially, a poem composed for the occasion of the funeral of some personage.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A song of lamentation; a threnode.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek θρηνῳδία (thrēnōidia, "lamentation"), from θρῆνος (thrēnos, "lament, wail, dirge") + ᾠδή (ōidē, "song"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek thrēnōidiā : thrēnos, lament + aoidē, ōidē, song; see ode. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Now I know there are a lot of words that will be used between storied, but threnody is a sufficiently unusual one as to catch my attention.”
“Now for those of us who do not know what that word means right off hand (I had to look it up as I was reading a passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson long ago), a threnody is a song or hymn inspired by the grief of losing someone you love.”
“As written, the diphthongization is a kind of threnody in its own right.”
“Ralph Waldo Emerson long ago), a threnody is a song or hymn inspired by the grief of losing someone you love.”
“For those of us who do not know what [the] word [ 'threnody']”
“House of Exile is a bold, inventive and often haunting threnody for European letters in a terrible century.”
“The riot of imagery and emotional inflation in the short feminist allegory “The Call,” in the long poem “The Children of the Moon,” or in the blazing threnody “A Litany at Atlanta” suggested trances, gnostic visions, dark nights of the soul, and, as one perceptive biographer observed, other intensely religious moments that are surprising at first to see in an agnostic and publicly restrained Du Bois.”
“In fact, its tensions could have as much to do with the exquisite intensity of love -- Barber didn't intend it as a threnody -- but Alsop and the orchestra did nothing to go against the prevailing view; it got a gentle, modulated performance from the orchestra's rich strings.”
The Washington Post: In performance: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
“Nothing will come of it," said Robert Bossu resignedly in Hugh Beringar's ear, when the two monodies had declined at last into one bitter threnody.”
“In singing KBR's threnody I relied on the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth who when stepping into the shower in a barracks electrically wired by KBR was electrocuted instead of washed.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘threnody’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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phrontistery-t
from phrontistery.info
tabacosis, tabanid, tabaret, tabati?re, tabby, tabefaction, tabellary, tabellion, tabernacle, tabernacular, tabescent, tabific and 930 more...
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250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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forms/acts: art
threnody, eisegesis, imbricate, screed, lapis, requiem, colophon, homunculus, deus ex machina, apophthegm, anastrophe, anaphora and 47 more...
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Metawords
Talking about talking, writing about writing, etc.
epizeuxis, tautological, aptote, bibliophagist, parataxis, scriptorium, aposiopesis, variorum, chantefable, boustrophedon, psellism, adoxography and 51 more...
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songs for the dead
various funerary productions
lament, epicedium, dirge, requiem, elegy, exequy, obsequies, epicede, Thanatopsis, trental, threnody, myriologue and 32 more...
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eg's list
lexicolony
nefandous, ineffable, ultracrepidate, haecceity, quiddity, noumenon, hypokeimenon, extemporaneous, theomastix, caducity, niddering, tellurian and 16 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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known words
words wot i already knew
antisyzygy, calenture, shill, saudade, sehnsucht, squonk, steganographic, anomie, wiggy, grok, hermeneutics, agrise and 206 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 332 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for threnody.
john “We paying respect to the dead right now,” Juelz Santana told the Hammerstein Ballroom crowd Friday night, urging a moment of silence for the friends he had lost in recent months. “We gotta get this right.”
Moments before, the screens above him onstage were displaying their photos — G-Baby, D-Train, Classik, Johnny Jerajian, Huddy 6 — while D.R.S.’s threnody “Gangsta Lean” played over the speakers.
The New York Times, Survivors Celebrate a Family Reunion, by Jon Caramanica, November 28, 2010 Nov 29, 2010