clerihew

Definition of clerihewnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of clerihew Edited by Dava Sobel NOTE: A clerihew is a four-line poetic format invented in 1905 by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who wrote humorous rhymes about all manner of persons, making frivolous fun of their names. Melissa Dehner, Scientific American, 26 Mar. 2021 Easy to write and fun to read, entrants were asked to write a clerihew that describes a famous scientist or other person, or event closely associated with fire. William Gurstelle, WIRED, 16 Aug. 2011
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clerihew
Noun
  • This isn’t the terrifying Frost of modernist criticism—although the poem is fully aware of darkness, and its world, on the cusp of World War I, like ours, certainly had its terrors.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Among her legion of fans are Stephen Colbert, Steve Buscemi, and Helena Bonham Carter who read from her poems in the documentary.
    Matthew Carey, Deadline, 24 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • By simply turning just one strip, the sonnet is altered.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 27 Apr. 2026
  • After all, no poet talks seriously about doing statistical regression on sonnets to find the optimal ones.
    Konstantin Kakaes, Quanta Magazine, 13 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Holmes’ feed is a babbling stream of self-help epigrams, ankle-deep reflections and many, many photos of herself.
    Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 10 Dec. 2025
  • That celebrated epigram is delivered by the character of Octave, who is the greatest creation of Renoir’s career—not least because he’s played by Renoir in a performance that’s essentially a self-portrait, even an onscreen self-creation.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 July 2025
Noun
  • He was also known for his haikus and limericks, including some written to summarize ethics.
    Elliott Wenzler, Denver Post, 2 Apr. 2026
  • These can then be assembled to capture the ladder of logical complexity: patterns of patterns, such as limericks or subject-verb agreement.
    Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, villanelle was simply the French term for an Italian country song, and during the Renaissance, poets often used the title for their work regardless of a poem’s specific structure.
    The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Elongated and paved with bricks, the path is a closed form, a kind of physical villanelle that thwarts the experience of continuity or the feeling of finitude.
    Hamilton Cain, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
Noun
  • The epitome of that tradition is Choral Evensong, an evening service of hymns, psalms and prayers laid out by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of the Church of England, in 1549.
    ABC News, ABC News, 5 Apr. 2026
  • After all, audiences may be captivated by the psalm singing itself, but then can also find more things that capture their imagination in the observational doc.
    Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 27 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • At Culinary Masters, Lo is transforming the traditional English breakfast into an ode to New Orleans, adding a dose of the city’s many flavors and cultures into the cuisine.
    Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 27 Apr. 2026
  • There’s something so satisfying in knowing this maximalist ode to femme chaos merited a shooting star franchise.
    Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 24 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • To say an elegy by heart/to zero our dying before birth.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
  • The show, a sort of elegy for Gen X, opens with a flash-forward to July 16, 1999, the final hours of Carolyn and John.
    Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2026

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“Clerihew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clerihew. Accessed 3 May. 2026.

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