elegiac
Americanadjective
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used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
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expressing sorrow or lamentation.
elegiac strains.
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Classical Prosody. noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.
noun
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an elegiac or distich verse.
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a poem in such distichs or verses.
adjective
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resembling, characteristic of, relating to, or appropriate to an elegy
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lamenting; mournful; plaintive
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denoting or written in elegiac couplets or elegiac stanzas
noun
Other Word Forms
- elegiacally adverb
Etymology
Origin of elegiac
First recorded in 1575–85; from Middle French, from Latin elegīacus, from Greek elegeiakós; equivalent to elegy + -ac
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.
Character actor Noah Segan’s directorial debut, the movie is a warmly elegiac portrait of the city and the pain of recognizing when your time has passed.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2026
Goldblatt’s pictures from before these events are touristic and from afterward elegiac; particularly moving are his portraits of the dispossessed, showing their bitterness and their dignity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
His patient, elegiac tone mimics the president’s reserve: The camera almost never moves, the musical cues are minimal, and there is virtually no unnecessary cutting.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
Cushioned between the more experimental songs, however, were the real crowd-pleasers: An elegiac version of Lucky, a beautifully twisted No Surprises and a genuinely sublime version of Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.
From BBC • Nov. 21, 2025
The correspondence lost its argumentative edge and shifted back to an elegiac, still-life pattern after 1820.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
