Hymn
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A song of praise or worship, especially a religious one.
"But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat’s-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon."
- 2 a song of praise (to God or to a saint or to a nation) wordnet
- 1 To sing a hymn. ambitransitive
"An unknown cast, including Diane Keaton, hymned the Age of Aquarius, stripped off at the end of the first act and let the sunshine in at the end of the second."
- 2 praise by singing a hymn wordnet
- 3 To praise or extol in hymns. transitive
"To hymn the birth-night of the Lord."
- 4 sing a hymn wordnet
Example
More examples"The morning service began with a hymn."
Etymology
From Middle English ymne, from Old English ymen (reinforced by Old French ymne), from Latin hymnus, borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕμνος (húmnos).
Related phrases
More for "hymn"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.