lyric

CEFRB1

/ˈlɪɹɪk/

noun · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
The words of a song.
02
adjective
Extra detail
Of, or relating to a type of poetry (such as a sonnet or ode) that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style.

Examples

I like lyric better than epic.
What's your favorite song lyric?

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 1
Synonyms: 1

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

Of or relating to a writer of such poetry.
Having a light singing voice of modest range.
Of or relating to musical drama and opera.

More examples

In context

The lyric in line 3 doesn't rhyme.
The lyrics were written by the composer.
Yo, I got one lyric pointed at your head for start / Another one is pointed at your weak-ass heart

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A short poem that expresses the poet's personal feelings and is often set to music is called a blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From French lyrique, or its source, Latin lyricus, from Ancient Greek λυρικός (lurikós), from λύρα (lúra, “lyre”). Its English equivalent would be lyre + -ic. The original Greek sense of "lyric poetry"—"poetry accompanied by the lyre" i.e. "words set to music"—eventually led to its use as "lyrics", first attested in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Stainer and Barrett used the word as a singular substantive: "Lyric, poetry or blank verse intended to be set to music and sung". By the 1930s, the present use of the plurale tantum "lyrics" had begun; it has been standard since the 1950s for many writers. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words t...