dirge

American  

[durj] / dɜrdʒ /

noun

1. a funeral song or tune, or one expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead.

2. any composition resembling such a song or tune in character, as a poem of lament for the dead or solemn, mournful music.

   Tennyson's dirge for the Duke of Wellington.

3. a mournful sound resembling a dirge.

   The autumn wind sang the dirge of summer.

4. Ecclesiastical. the office of the dead, or the funeral service as sung.

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dirge British  

/ dɜːdʒ /

noun

1. a chant of lamentation for the dead

2. the funeral service in its solemn or sung forms

3. any mourning song or melody

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Other Word Forms

• dirgeful adjective

Etymology

Origin of dirge

1175–1225; Middle English dir ( i ) ge < Latin: direct, syncopated variant of dīrige (imperative of dīrigere ), first word of the antiphon sung in the Latin office of the dead (Psalm V, 8)

Example Sentences

It might be time to pause the funeral dirge for software and services stocks.

From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026

The mystery, along with Lightfoot’s mournful and eminently meme-able dirge, created fertile soil for a cultural resurgence today—one driven largely by Gen Z and millennials who love mythologizing working-class tragedies and Midwestern nostalgia.

From Slate • Nov. 10, 2025

But this isn’t a dirge — it’s a fight song and a taunt, and it sets the tone of comfortable, mischievous defiance that threads through the entire album.

From Salon • Sep. 2, 2025

The score sustains single notes like a dirge as Leigh judiciously chooses which noises he’ll let barge into Pansy’s sterile life.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025

There was no dirge, no incense, no requiem, although hymns were sung in the small church.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Related Words

• elegy
• hymn