Lyric

How to spell lyric

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lyric

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lyric mean?

1. nounA line or set of words of a song, especially as distinct from the music.
2. adjectiveExpressing personal feelings in a direct, songlike way, especially of poetry.

Lyric in a sentence

• noun

  She could not recall a single lyric from the chorus.

• adjective

  The collection moves from narrative verse to intensely lyric poems.

• noun

  The printed booklet included every lyric from the album.

• adjective

  Critics praised the lyric quality of her short reflective stanzas.

Where does lyric come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek lyrikos, meaning 'singing to the lyre', which was built on lyra, the name of the small stringed harp that the ancient Greeks plucked to accompany sung poetry. In the classical world a 'lyric' poem was one literally meant to be performed with that instrument, as opposed to verse that was spoken or chanted, so the sound of the music was baked into the meaning from the start. The term passed into Latin as lyricus and then into French as lyrique before reaching English in the late 1500s, when poets began describing short, songlike, emotionally personal poems as lyric. Over the following centuries the noun came to mean the actual words of a song, the sense most people reach for today when they talk about song lyrics. The single y in the middle is the fossil of that Greek lyra, and remembering the instrument is the easiest way to avoid spelling it with an i.

How the word is built

• lyr- (from Greek lyra, the lyre)
• -ic (adjective/noun suffix)