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elegiac

/ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək/
IPA guide

Other forms: elegiacally

If there's one song on your playlist that always brings tears to your eyes, maybe it's because it has an elegiac quality. Elegiac means "mournful or sad."

The adjective elegiac is useful when you're talking about music, a movie, a book, or another work of art that has a sorrowful tone. Sometimes elegiac specifically refers to something or someone that's gone: a person who's died, or a time in the past, especially if you feel a sense of longing for it. You can speak in an elegiac way, or sing an elegiac tune. The word comes from the Greek elegos, "poem or song of lament."

Definitions of elegiac
  1. adjective
    resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy
    “an elegiac poem on a friend's death”
  2. adjective
    expressing sorrow often for something past
    “an elegiac lament for youthful ideals”
    synonyms:
    sorrowful
    experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss
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