elegiac
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehluhjeeakSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛlədʒiæk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy
Of or relating to an elegy.
Expressing sorrow or mourning.
noun
A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy
Used this way, elegiac is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use elegiac
- “An elegiac poem on a friend's death.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A quatrain in iambic pentameter with abab rhyme scheme.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.