noun
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a person who writes the words for a song, opera, or musical play
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Also called: lyrist. a lyric poet
Etymology
Origin of lyricist
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She brought him to meet her son, an aspiring lyricist named Howard Greenfield, and the pair quickly became a songwriting team, with Greenfield writing the words and Sedaka handling the music.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026
“Blue Moon” isn’t merely a showcase for Ethan Hawke’s continuing quest to challenge himself as an actor, illustrated by his Oscar-nominated turn as the very short, comb-over-sporting lyricist Lorenz Hart.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026
Former Little Mixer Jade Thirlwall turned in a scathing-but-affectionate thesis on pop music and pop stardom on That's Showbiz, Baby! and West End Girl re-established Lily Allen as a master lyricist.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2025
The chapters are arranged like the bayts, or couplets, of a ghazal, and they describe a succession of infatuations, some romantic and some purely poetic, as in the odes to the 14th-century Persian lyricist Hafez.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
You might well be the lyricist of an all-time hit.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
