litany

American  

[lit-n-ee] / ˈlɪt n i /

noun

litanies plural

1. a ceremonial or liturgical form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations or supplications with responses that are the same for a number in succession.

2. the Litany, the supplication in this form in the Book of Common Prayer.

3. a recitation or recital that resembles a litany.

4. a prolonged or tedious account.

   We heard the whole litany of their complaints.

   Synonyms:

   enumeration, catalog, list

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litany British  

/ ˈlɪtənɪ /

noun

1. Christianity

   1. a form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations, each followed by an unvarying response

   2. the general supplication in this form included in the Book of Common Prayer

2. any long or tedious speech or recital

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litany Cultural  

1. In many religions, a ritual repetition of prayers. Usually a clergyman or singer chants a prayer, and the congregation makes a response, such as “Lord, have mercy.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• litanies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of litany

before 900; < Late Latin litanīa < Late Greek litaneía litany, Greek: an entreating, equivalent to litan- (stem of litaínein, variant of litaneúein to pray) + -eia -y ³; replacing Middle English letanie, Old English letanīa < Medieval Latin, Late Latin, as above

Explanation

A litany is a long, repetitive list or series of grievances, like your picky brother's litany of complaints about dinner or the litany of critical comments your English teacher writes in the margins of your essay. The original meaning of litany is a purely religious one. During some Christian services, a member of the clergy recites a litany, a lengthy call-and-response type of prayer. The word's Greek root means "entreaty," and in this religious context, that's an entreaty to God. Its more popular, secular meaning tends to be used in a negative way, as in your grandpa's litany of aches and pains or the litany of complaints from passengers on a stalled subway car.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

litany litanies

They have voiced a litany of complaints about the unfairness of El Chapo’s prosecution and requested that he be sent back to Mexico.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

Ahead of his first broadcast, Dokoupil made a litany of public promises.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

Despite that, Neymar's litany of physical issues in recent times means expectations of him are not what they once were.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

The litany of complaints continues, though, and reading between the lines, it’s clear the root of the men’s fury is rejection.

From Slate ● May 26, 2026

In this litany, it was somehow very clear that these jobs, they were the exceptions, and that “service” had mostly been of another kind.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

LeBlanc never moves her camera away from the ground level; there are no policy prescriptions, no litanies of statistics and no melodramatic statements about pity or persistence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025

Because these kinds of litanies are not rare, I get why actor, writer, and producer Issa Rae, the woman behind "Insecure" and "Rap Sh!t," is over it.

From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2023

As was also the case with Tom Stoppard’s Broadway hit “Leopoldstadt,” I sometimes felt in “Otto Frank” that the names of the camps and the litanies of loss were being dragooned into dramatic service illegitimately.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2023

The emails that straggle through are litanies of the wreckage he’s seeing every day, interspersed with guilt and remorse at their separation.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2021

Whether there was any truth to Boori Ma’s litanies no one could be sure.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Related Words

• catalogue
• recitation
• repetition