noun
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a person who writes the words for a song, opera, or musical play
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Also called: lyrist. a lyric poet
Etymology
Origin of lyricist
Explanation
A lyricist is an artist who writes the words to songs. While Leonard Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim was the lyricist. A song's words are lyrics, and the person who writes them is a lyricist. Originally, these terms described a kind of musical poetry and the poet who specialized in the form: the Greek root lyrikos means "singing to the lyre." Today, lyricists write the words that a vocalist will sing. Sometimes they write the music too, though lyricists often collaborate with composers to create a song.
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.
Indian lyricist Javed Akhtar said in a television interview on Sunday that she would often prepare kebabs for him, taking particular pleasure when he praised her food.
From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026
What have you gotten better at as a lyricist?
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2026
Steinberg's family described him as a "visionary lyricist, devoted husband, loving father, and one of the most influential songwriters of his era".
From BBC • Feb. 17, 2026
The chapters are arranged like the bayts, or couplets, of a ghazal, and they describe a succession of infatuations, some romantic and some purely poetic, as in the odes to the 14th-century Persian lyricist Hafez.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
You might well be the lyricist of an all-time hit.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
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.
