Lyrical

How to spell lyrical

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lyrical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lyrical mean?

1. adjectiveExpressing strong personal emotion in an imaginative, flowing, and beautiful way, often as in song or poetry.

Lyrical in a sentence

• The novel opens with a lyrical description of the coast at dawn.

• Critics praised the singer for her lyrical phrasing on the ballad.

Where does lyrical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek lyrikos, meaning 'singing to the lyre', which was built directly on lyra, the name of the small stringed instrument that accompanied early Greek poetry. Because that poetry was meant to be sung rather than recited, the term came to mark verse charged with personal feeling, as opposed to the grand narrative of epic. Latin took the word as lyricus, and it passed into English through French in the late 1500s, first as 'lyric' and soon after as 'lyrical'. Over time the meaning broadened from a strict link with song and poetry to describe anything that expresses deep emotion in a flowing, beautiful way. The 'y' that trips up writers is a direct souvenir of the Greek upsilon in lyra, the same letter that survives in the words 'lyre' and 'lyric' themselves.

How the word is built

• lyric (from Greek lyrikos: of the lyre)
• -al (adjective suffix)