The Word of the Day

lyric \LEER-ik\ adjective
1 a : suitable for singing to the lyre or for being set to music and sung b : of, relating to, or being drama set to music; especially : operatic
2 a : expressing direct usually intense personal emotion especially in a manner suggestive of song b : exuberant, rhapsodic
3 : having a light voice and a melodic style

Example sentence: The critics are praising Jessica's debut novel as a lyric masterpiece that bravely lays out the emotional tensions experienced by its young author.

Did you know? To the ancient Greeks, anything "lyrikos" was appropriate to the lyre. That elegant stringed instrument was highly regarded by the Greeks and was used to accompany intensely personal poetry that revealed the thoughts and feelings of the poet. When the adjective "lyric," a descendant of "lyrikos," was adopted into English in the 1500s, it too referred to things pertaining or adapted to the lyre. Initially, it was applied to poetic forms (such as elegies, odes, or sonnets) that expressed strong emotion, to poets who wrote such works, or to things that were meant to be sung; over time, it was extended to anything musical or rhapsodic. Nowadays, "lyric" is also used as a noun naming either a type of poem or the words of a song.