lyric
- 01 B1 Intermediate
n.the words of a song.
n.the words of a song or other vocal musical composition; usually used in the plural.
Simple“I can never remember the lyrics to this song, even though I've heard it many times.”
In context“The songwriter spent weeks refining the lyrics to ensure the emotional resonance of the chorus matched the complexity of the melody.”
PitfallI like the lyric of this song. I like the lyrics of this song.When talking about the words of a song, use the plural form 'lyrics'.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a short poem that expresses the personal feelings of the writer.
n.a poem that expresses the writer's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms like sonnets.
Simple“The poet wrote a beautiful lyric about his childhood home.”
In context“The anthology focuses on the nineteenth-century lyric, highlighting how personal grief was transformed into universal art through structured verse.”
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.relating to poetry or music that expresses personal emotions in a song-like way.
adj.relating to poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often characterized by a melodic or rhythmic quality.
Simple“She has a very lyric style of writing that focuses on her inner thoughts.”
In context“The author's lyric prose elevates the memoir, turning a simple sequence of events into a profound meditation on memory and loss.”
Synonyms - 04 C1 Advanced
adj.having a light and clear singing voice.
adj.denoting a singing voice of light quality and modest range, especially in opera.
Simple“The young singer is a lyric soprano with a very bright tone.”
In context“The role requires a lyric tenor capable of navigating the delicate upper register without sacrificing the clarity of the Italian vowels.”
“I wrote the lyrics on the floor of my bedroom in Basingstoke when I was 16 or 17, as a way of decompressing from studying for my A-levels.”
“Her voice breaks as she sings the lyric, "But I knew who I was when I got here", but it transpires that she's simply reacting to an audience member who's blubbing their eyes out.”
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 to a song by authorities such as Alec Wilder, Robert Gottlieb, and Stephen Sondheim. However, the singular form is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.