elegy

American  

[el-i-jee] / ˈɛl ɪ dʒi /

noun

• elegies
  plural

1. a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

2. a poem written in elegiac meter.

3. a sad or mournful musical composition.

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elegy British  

/ ˈɛlɪdʒɪ /

noun

1. a mournful or plaintive poem or song, esp a lament for the dead

2. poetry or a poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas

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elegy Cultural  

1. A form of poetry that mourns the loss of someone who has died or something that has deteriorated. A notable example is the “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” by Thomas Gray. (Compare eulogy.)

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Commonly Confused

See eulogy

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• elegies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of elegy

First recorded in 1505–15; from Middle French or directly from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeîa “elegiac poem or inscription,” originally plural of elegeîon “a distich consisting of an hexameter and a penameter,” equivalent to éleg(os) “song, melody,” later “a lament” + -eios adjective suffix

Compare meaning

How does elegy compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• elegy vs. eulogy

Explanation

An elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. Although a speech at a funeral is a eulogy, you might later compose an elegy to someone you have loved and lost to the grave. The purpose of this kind of poem is to express feelings rather than tell a story. Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem that reflects on the lives of common people buried in a church cemetery, and on the nature of human mortality. The noun elegy was borrowed in the 16th century from Middle French élégie, from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeia, from elegos "mournful poem or song."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

elegy elegies

But the focus of this book is much more about the Diana era - and an elegy to the lost world of their childhood.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

I have gone back and forth, and I have landed on this: It is an elegy.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

“Time and Water” is a curiously vibrant elegy, teeming with appreciation for the intimate majesty that is all life, generational and geologic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

The final Cal Hooper installment is an elegy to both a lost girl and a vanishing way of life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

A flight attendant greeted the elegy of scythes, and then the second they were past her, she turned, left the plane, and ran down the jetway.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

Ashura processions are usually dramatic affairs, with chanters singing elegies or dirges dedicated to Hussein, while audience members beat their chests and engage in displays of mourning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026

But amid the elegies written about American capitalism, the latest mini-IPO boom is a welcome tribute to the dynamism of U.S. markets that no other country can match.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

"But I felt as if I were writing elegies, actually."

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2023

The participants, mostly wearing black clothes, beat their chests and recited elegies in the commercial heart of Srinagar.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 27, 2023

It is from poetry that the elegies of Catullus derive almost all their tenderness—his amorous verses all their delicacy, playfulness, or voluptuousness—and his epigrams all their sting.

From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume II by John Dunlop