Tenebrae

[ten-uh-brey]

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

1. the office of matins and lauds for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week, sung respectively on the afternoon of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week, at which the Crucifixion is commemorated by the gradual extinguishment of candles.

Tenebrae

/ ˈtɛnəˌbreɪ /

noun

1. (functioning as singular or plural) RC Church (formerly) the matins and lauds for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week, usually sung in the evenings or at night

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tenebrae¹

1645–55; < Latin: literally, darkness

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tenebrae¹

C17: from Latin: darkness

Example Sentences

In a tribute on the website of the London-based choir Tenebrae, Nigel Short, the choir’s director, recalled the crucial support Mr. Bowman gave him early in his career.

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“Dark Glasses” isn’t a delirious masterpiece like his “Suspiria” or “Tenebrae.”

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In 1982, Giallo master Dario Argento directed a slasher film called Tenebrae, or “darkness.”

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Tenebrae unfolds like many other Italian horror movies of the period, but in the years after, Argento told interviewers that it actually took place in a near-future where the human race has been depopulated by an unspoken tragedy.

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Contemporary music is doubly represented, too, by Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 3 and Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae.”

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