dirge
Slow, mournful music
A dirge is a slow, mournful song or piece of music, especially one performed at a funeral or in commemoration of the dead.
The word extends to any lamenting expression: The wind made a dirge through the empty house.
A dirge for something lost or ended need not be musical: His memoir reads as a dirge for small-town America.
Mass for the deceased
- threnodyMemorial song of grief
- elegyPoem lamenting the departed
- lamentMournful expression of grief
- keeningVocal mourning for dead
monody · plaint · death song · funeral song · mourning song · keen · wailing · lamentation
Formal moving line
- cortegeCeremonial attendant procession
- obsequiesFormal burial rites
- intermentPutting a body underground
- pallbearerFuneral coffin transporter
casket · wake · burial · graveside · hearse · funeral march · toll · knell
Deep emotional distress
- mourningPeriod following loss
- bereavementState following loss
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- lossBeing without something
woe · melancholy · desolation · heartache · grieving · tears · sadness · despair
Repetitive rhythmic phrase
- hymnReligious song of praise
- psalmSacred scriptural song
- requiem massLiturgy for the departed
- plainchantUnaccompanied liturgical melody
dead march · slow march · sacred song · canticle · motet · chorale · Dies Irae · Kaddish
Gravely serious in mood
- mournfulShowing or feeling grief
- plaintiveSounding sad, sorrowful
- dolefulExpressing deep sorrow
- funerealGloomily solemn in manner
lugubrious · sepulchral · solemn · grave · elegiac · melancholic · sorrowful · dolorous
requiem
Mass for the deceased
keening · monody · plaint · death song · funeral song · mourning song · keen · wailing · lamentation
procession
Formal moving line
- cortegeCeremonial attendant procession
- obsequiesFormal burial rites
- intermentPutting a body underground
pallbearer · casket · wake · burial · graveside · hearse · funeral march · toll · knell · pall
sorrow
Deep emotional distress
- mourningPeriod following loss
- bereavementState following loss
- anguishIntense mental suffering
loss · woe · melancholy · desolation · heartache · grieving · tears · sadness · despair · condolence
chant
Repetitive rhythmic phrase
- hymnReligious song of praise
- psalmSacred scriptural song
- requiem massLiturgy for the departed
plainchant · dead march · slow march · sacred song · canticle · motet · chorale · Dies Irae · Kaddish
somber
Gravely serious in mood
funereal · lugubrious · sepulchral · solemn · grave · elegiac · melancholic · sorrowful · dolorous · woeful
- funeral musicrequiem, funeral march, funeral hymns, death march, mourning song
- poetry typeshaiku, sonnet, limerick, ballad, ode
- ritual songsanthem, hymn, processional, recessional, requiem
- musicmusic, song, songs, singing, singer
- funeral customsburial, funeral, cremation, funeral procession, casket
- funeralsfuneral, burial, cremation, casket, coffin
dirgepaean
Laudatory song or ode
celebration · hymn of praise · victory song · jubilee · jubilate
dirgejig
Spirited folk dance
polka · reel · dance tune · tarantella · gallop
- sense of directionSpatial navigation instinct
- direct sunlightUnobstructed solar rays
- direct hitStrike exactly on target
- wrong directionIncorrect path taken
- direct messagePrivate online communication
- direct depositFunds sent to account automatically