To express mourning for someone or something in an elegy, or in a similarly reflective artistic form.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- elegize the dead
- elegize a lost world
- elegize in verse
On the page
The final chapter elegizes the orchards that disappeared beneath the new roads.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- elegize
- Past tense
- elegized
- Past participle
- elegized
- Present participle
- elegizing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- elegize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are elegizing
- Present perfect
- have/has elegized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been elegizing
- Past
- elegized
- Past continuous
- was/were elegizing
- Past perfect
- had elegized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been elegizing
- Future
- will elegize
- Future continuous
- will be elegizing
- Future perfect
- will have elegized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been elegizing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: poetic / figurative / atmospheric. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: elegize; elegizes; elegized; elegized; elegizing Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Lamenting in or as if in an elegy gives a precise artistic action beyond generic mourning; contemporary examples and Collins corroborate wider elegiac use. Writing functions: literary expression, memory or character interpretation. Third-person singular: elegizes.
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