How to Use elegiac in a Sentence

elegiac

adjective
  • The most elegiac work in the outdoor show could hardly have been simpler.
    — Esther Allen, The New York Review of Books, 15 June 2019
  • His tone was elegiac, but not apologetic.
    — Beth Lew-Williams, New Yorker, 13 Sep. 2025
  • But that was not the only reason that there was an elegiac theme to Monday night.
    — John Koblin, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2024
  • But don’t let his elegiac prose divert you — there is a dedicated scholar at work here.
    — Valorie Castellanos Clark, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2025
  • An old crane hovers above the Hudson, lending the retreat an elegiac feel.
    — Gary Shteyngart, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The abiding tone is mournful yet steadfast, elegiac and full of gratitude.
    — Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 28 Aug. 2023
  • But only one of them felt moved to memorialize the King in an elegiac poem.
    — Kim Willis, USA Today, 27 Feb. 2026
  • His empathy doesn’t last—the end of the film swings back to nunchuck heroics—but the critters retain an elegiac aura.
    — Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Her poetry could be elegiac or salt of the earth, her fictional characters alive.
    — Beverly Gologorsky september 5, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
  • McAlpine’s work was funny and forthright, but also vaguely elegiac.
    — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 17 June 2024
  • The title suggests the elegiac strain that runs through all 10 of these tracks (five with Williams’s vocals).
    — Jon Garelick, BostonGlobe.com, 27 June 2018
  • The scale of Alan Yang’s heartfelt debut feature is human, its tone elegiac.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 10 Apr. 2020
  • The response has run the gamut between rank speculation and elegiac mourning.
    — Ann Hornaday, chicagotribune.com, 23 June 2017
  • Despite the elegiac tone, Jill also devotes much of the book to the social side of being first lady.
    — Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair, 4 June 2026
  • The language is more elegiac, almost mystical, though as precise as ever.
    — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2020
  • But there’s a vital element missing from this elegiac seaside picture.
    — Rob Crossan, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Mar. 2026
  • These elegiac images, and the accompanying stories and videos, show us what silence looks like.
    — Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2020
  • Now, four years later, Joe Biden's bid for the White House has taken on almost an elegiac air.
    — Susan Page, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2020
  • The author’s elegiac prose is wrought in English by translator Humphrey Davies.
    — Nate Zipp, Christian Science Monitor, 1 May 2025
  • As the details pile up, irony, both caustic and elegiac, flourishes in the knowledge gaps between characters.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2023
  • The poems are elegiac, and once again her followers may read this as personal elegy — which is only hinted at.
    — Carol Muske-Dukes, Washington Post, 2 Sep. 2023
  • What McCarthy did in stark, elegiac prose, Larcenet does with kinetic, scratchy images.
    — Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Hoffs and Martin intertwined their voices, stripping the sweet lament to a gorgeously elegiac place.
    — Alex Suskind, EW.com, 22 Apr. 2020
  • The elegiac score by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva is redolent with the buoyant melancholy of klezmer.
    — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 11 June 2019
  • Set largely in England, these ten elegiac tales depict loss of innocence, loss of memory, loss of love and, acutely, loss of life.
    — The Economist, 17 May 2018
  • Unforgiven was the elegiac work of an aging icon looking back on a long and varied career; that was 1992.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024
  • But the Robert Redford prone to elegiac meditations on the human condition is well-evoked here.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 13 Mar. 2026
  • McGuane’s style grew less frantic, more habitually elegiac.
    — Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Miguel’s journey may sway to a leisurely, elegiac art-film beat, but that rhythm barely conceals the pulsing machinery of a detective story.
    — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2024
  • Its elegiac meanderings return time and time again to the figure of Carel Fabritius.
    — Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post, 28 June 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elegiac.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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