hymn
Americannoun
-
hymns
plural
verb (used with object)
-
hymns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hymned,
past participle, past
-
hymning
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
hymns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hymned,
past participle, past
-
hymning
present participle
noun
-
a Christian song of praise sung to God or a saint
-
a similar song praising other gods, a nation, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hymnsimple
-
hymnssimple
-
have hymnedperfect
-
has hymnedperfect
-
am hymningprogressive
-
are hymningprogressive
-
is hymningprogressive
-
have been hymningperfect progressive
-
has been hymningperfect progressive
Past
-
hymnedsimple
-
had hymnedperfect
-
was hymningprogressive
-
were hymningprogressive
-
had been hymningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hymn
before 1000; < Latin hymnus < Greek hýmnos song in praise of gods or heroes; replacing Middle English ymne (< Old French ) and Old English ymn (< Late Latin ymnus )
Explanation
A hymn is a religious song, especially one praising God. People often sing hymns during church services. The word hymn comes from the Late Latin hymnus, "song of praise," and the Greek hymnos, "festive song in praise of gods or heroes." Though many people think of hymns as Christian, they're used in many other religions too, from ancient Greek hymns to deities, to Sikh hymns and Hindu hymns to many gods. What these songs have in common is giving thanks or praise to a god or gods.
Vocabulary lists containing hymn
Poetry: Genres
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Reading: Literature - Poetry - Middle School
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"Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." and "I Have a Dream"
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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.
See Examples For:
Her last true classic, it was a hymn to the liberating power of the club.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
Perhaps the organizers thought the crowd wouldn’t dare boo during a patriotic hymn.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
At four years old, Platner said, he knew all the words of the Marine Corps hymn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
So it makes sense that “The Lincoln Lawyer” is as big a hymn to the city as “Bosch.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
I wanted to see my father alone, without the small congregation as witnesses, so I asked for another bowl of stew and drank it slowly while they walked to him singing a mournful hymn.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
From every camp come hymns to the principle of free passage without saying how to uphold it in present circumstances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Some of the hymns and liturgy were the same as those sung by Anglicans around the world, but there were also differences, like the upbeat worship music that had the congregation dancing in the pews.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026
Protesters, some wearing clerical stoles draped over their shoulders, knelt while singing hymns and reciting the Lord’s Prayer in frigid conditions before being handcuffed and led away, video showed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Some inmates told visitors they could hear the national anthem and hymns sung by families who have held vigils nearby for the past two nights.
From Barron's ● Jan. 10, 2026
For many people, this cadence will be familiar as the "Amen" chords at the end of many traditional hymns.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
After living for two years in a small cabin beside Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, he hymned the results in his classic account Walden, published in 1854.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
Two of the credited writers, he says, had probably never even been to West Virginia when they hymned the beauty of its valleys and rivers.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2017
That has changed, or has seemed to change, recently, with Marine taking on a group of surreptitious haute-fonctionnaire “Horaces”—the name is a reference to the great if obsequious Roman poet who hymned the emperor Augustus.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 30, 2017
Famous fans like Stewart Lee have hymned the show's odd profundity: Jackson's ideology throws into relief the purposelessness of our supposedly meaningful lives.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 5, 2011
"Pavilioned in splendor" were the words descriptive of her which he had heard thunderously hymned in church.
From The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington) O'Brien
Holst leaves the listener in the far removes of outer space, with Neptune being a study in musical mysticism, highlighted by a hidden hymning women’s chorus, as if heard from a mysterious distance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
It’s a two-hander, also featuring Zach Wyatt, appropriately exploring isolation and also hymning the wisdom of Walt Whitman.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2020
Bush went beyond hymning the “thousand points of light” to oversee the establishment of the Commission on National and Community Service.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 3, 2018
It’s a useful rejoinder to evangelists hymning the inevitable progress of “tech,” and gurus divining what technology “wants.”
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2015
Saving money, saving if from an occasion and saving it when there is a change of hymning, changing the whole escape that is not a rhapsody, it is the place of thunder.
From Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein With Two Shorter Stories by Gertrude Stein
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.
