lyric

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   expressing deep emotion

   the dancer's lyrical performance

2. 2
   adj

   used of a singer or singing voice that is light in volume and modest in range

   a lyric soprano

3. 3
   adj

   of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses emotion (often in a songlike way)

   lyric poetry

4. 4
   adj

   relating to or being musical drama

   the lyric stage

5. 5
   noun

   the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number

   Our compositions always started with the lyrics.

6. 6
   noun

   The words of a song or other vocal music.

   The lyric in line 3 doesn't rhyme.

7. 7
   noun

   a short poem of songlike quality

8. 8
   verb

   write lyrics for (a song)

Etymology

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 sin…