Elegiac

//ˌɛləˈd͡ʒaɪək// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter.

    "His saphics are worse, if possible, than his elegiacs"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to an elegy.

    "the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter"

  2. 2
    Expressing sorrow or mourning.

    "Hast thou no elegiac verse / For Brunswick's venerable hearse, / What! not a line, a tear, a sigh, / When valour bleeds for liberty?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    expressing sorrow often for something past wordnet
  2. 2
    resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
accentalcaicanacreonticanapestatrabiliaryatrabilious

Example

More examples

"Tom wrote an elegiac couplet in Latin about Mary."

Etymology

From Middle French élégiaque, from Latin elegīacus, from Ancient Greek ἐλεγειακός (elegeiakós).

Related phrases

elegiac coupletelegiac pentameter

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.