tetralogy

American  

[te-tral-uh-jee, -trah-luh-] / tɛˈtræl ə dʒi, -ˈtrɑ lə- /

noun

plural

tetralogies

1. a series of four related dramas, operas, novels, etc.

2. a group of four dramas, three tragedies and one satyr play, performed consecutively at the festival of Dionysus in ancient Athens.

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tetralogy British  

/ tɛˈtrælədʒɪ /

noun

1. a series of four related works, as in drama or opera

2. (in ancient Greece) a group of four dramas, the first three tragic and the last satiric

3. pathol a group of four symptoms present in one disorder, esp Fallot's tetralogy

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Etymology

Origin of tetralogy

From the Greek word tetralogía, dating back to 1650–60. See tetra-, -logy

Example Sentences

Picture an opera made entirely of a mad scene, and you have “Foreign Experiences,” an installment in “Now Eleanor’s Idea,” Ashley’s tetralogy whose construction recalls another four-work saga, Wagner’s “Ring.”

From New York Times • May 10, 2024

This one was a tetralogy: The Filipino champion and his Mexican rival met four times over eight years.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 16, 2022

Scurati’s rendering of the turbulent years from 1919 to 1925, the first volume in a projected tetralogy, is translated by Anne Milano Appel.

From Washington Post • Apr. 6, 2022

As director Francesca Zambello recently recalled in the New York Times, “Götterdämmerung,” the finale of the tetralogy, was the feminist, liberal, Jewish Supreme Court justice’s favorite opera.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2020

For the development of the great tetralogy, this is the most important scene of all, and, as such, it will probably meet with the necessary sympathy and attention.

From Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2 by Hueffer, Francis