hymn

1 of 2

noun

1
a
: a song of praise to God
sing a hymn of thanksgiving
b
: a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service
a book of hymns
2
: a song of praise or joy
in jolly hymns they praise the god of wineJohn Dryden
3
: something resembling a song of praise : paean
The novel is a hymn to childhood and innocence.
hymnlike adjective

hymn

2 of 2

verb

hymned ˈhimd How to pronounce hymn (audio) ; hymning ˈhi-miŋ How to pronounce hymn (audio)

transitive verb

: to praise or worship in or as if in hymns (see hymn entry 1)
the heroes who are hymned in this book

intransitive verb

: to sing a song that praises God : to sing a hymn
listening to the choir hymn

Examples of hymn in a Sentence

Noun sing a hymn of praise our Sunday church services always open with a hymn Verb during the honeymoon following the inauguration, newspaper articles seemed to hymn the president's every move
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The parking lots will be packed, congregations hitting the high notes on demanding Easter hymns, and churchgoers frantically searching for their Easter offering. Valerie Fraser Luesse, Southern Living, 22 Feb. 2024 As priests chanted hymns, Modi performed religious rituals before giving a speech that was televised live on nearly every news channel across the country. TIME, 24 Jan. 2024 Composer Alice Parker, who created arrangements of traditional hymns, as well as operas, oratorios and song cycles — one inspired by the sermons of Martin Luther King Jr. — is dead at 98. Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2024 The hymn was composed in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and his brother John Rosamond Johnson as a plea for Black freedom and emerged as civil rights movement theme song during the 1950s and ’60s. Jim Harrington, Orange County Register, 8 Feb. 2024 The best Easter hymns are the ones that stir your faith. Jorie Nicole McDonald, Southern Living, 31 Jan. 2024 The family sang hymns together and recited the Westminster Shorter Catechism every morning at breakfast. Michael S. Rosenwald, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2024 It was written by James Weldon Johnson, who considered the piece a hymn. Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 11 Feb. 2024 The hymn, originally penned by James Weldon Johnson with music by his brother John Rosamund Johnson, reflects on the ongoing struggle for racial equality and imagines a liberated future for Black Americans. Jaden Thompson, Variety, 11 Feb. 2024
Verb
Holst leaves the listener in the far removes of outer space, with Neptune being a study in musical mysticism, highlighted by a hidden hymning women’s chorus, as if heard from a mysterious distance. Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023 His own work reflects a lifelong love of reading in many genres, and his books brim with the testimonies of poets, artists, and mystics who hymn the delights of sentience. Nick Romeo, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2023 Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. Rebekah Lowin, Country Living, 17 Aug. 2022 But this wasn’t a flattening of hierarchies of the sort long hymned in Silicon Valley reveries of the online demos. Nathaniel Friedman, The New Republic, 21 Oct. 2019 Rogers was a benevolent, ditty-dispensing educator in civic virtue and human tolerance, who hymned the miracles of beautiful days and kindly friends, while acknowledging the fallibility of us all. Ben Brantley, New York Times, 20 Oct. 2019 But the wounds sustained and inflicted by cheating hearts, so often hymned by Nashville balladeers, are a specialty of Mr. Lonergan. Ben Brantley, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2016

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

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle English ymne, from Old English ymen, from Latin hymnus song of praise, from Greek hymnos

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1667, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Time Traveler
The first known use of hymn was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near hymn

Cite this Entry

“Hymn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hymn. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hymn

noun
ˈhim
1
: a song of praise especially to God
2
: a religious song

More from Merriam-Webster on hymn

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