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:
The crowd listened in silence as the Polynesians, wearing blue fire uniforms, sang a Tahitian hymn in harmony while two of them strummed ukuleles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
The specifics of Martha Graham’s choreography notwithstanding, it is the bright openness of Copland’s music, its resolutely optimistic cast—particularly his reworking of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”—that has implanted itself in the national imagination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Perhaps the organizers thought the crowd wouldn’t dare boo during a patriotic hymn.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
So the couple, who have been together for 13 years, decided to hold an "intimate" legal ceremony before a larger celebrant service where the hymn could be used.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
I stood by the door while she finished the hymn and ran through choruses of “Maple Leaf Rag,” “Georgia Blues,” and “Good Ole Summertime,” which she hummed, then played again, singing the words.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
The holy scripture contains the hymns and teachings of the Sikh Gurus, along with compositions by saint-poets from different spiritual traditions.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
The evangelist Billy Graham solidified his appeal by supplanting hymns with the style of music to which teens and young adults flocked; Broadway even chimed in with the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
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
He said traditional hymns will be sung by the church's Filipino community.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
People fanned themselves with programs in the July heat while the organist plodded out hymns.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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
Tonight, Ralf Hütter's music-workers play Trans-Europe Express, an album that hymned our continent's speedy rail service.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2013
A poet might have hymned her thus, but no painter could have painted her.
From Vera Nevill Or, Poor Wisdom's Chance by Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
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
And the poet and theorist Fred Moten, for his hymning of knowledge’s “undercommons,” its deviant intellectual crosscurrents and flight-paths, “fugitive enlightenment.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2022
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
But, as I have said in hymning Huneker, there is yet the munyonic consolation.
From A Book of Prefaces by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
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.
