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 work features four vocal soloists who represent Native American, Sephardic, African American and Protestant religious traditions, along with instrumental music based on early American hymn tunes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 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
The wartime shortage of paper restricted his early efforts to the kitchen floor and hymn books in church.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Perhaps the organizers thought the crowd wouldn’t dare boo during a patriotic hymn.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
He played a blood-and-thunder hymn, and Mrs. Cobb clapped to it.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
Through subtle harmonic shifts on “Crepuscule With Nellie,” perhaps Monk’s loveliest melody, he accentuates the song’s inherent connection to blues and church hymns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
He also used AI to do the call to worship, the prayers, and to write new hymns complete with AI-generated music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
"The gospel music we grew up on was hymns and traditional music," says Rutendo.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
The service, which included hymns from the Welsh choir Côr Meibion Taf, took place at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Leeds, before a wake at Leeds United's Elland Road ground.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026
Most traditional Protestant hymns and most "barbershop quartet" music is in this category.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
The all-conquering love hymned in the classic musical was beginning to look like an increasingly flimsy fiction.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2020
More recently, he has hymned a pre-presidential Barack Obama, and railed against Russian oligarchs on Neurosis of the Rich.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2018
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
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
The colossus Memnon hymned; priests of Baal screamed as they lacerated themselves with knives; Druid priestesses crooned sybillic incantations.
From Melomaniacs by James Huneker
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
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
We read him for his warm and vast-as-America hymning, and her for crabbed and cryptic messages left in a poetic bottle.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2011
It was only the sisters in their chapel gently hymning the Salve of the Compline to their Queen in Heaven.
From The Shepherd of the North by Richard Aumerle Maher
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.
