litany
5
8.7
- noun
- /ˈlɪtəni/
- Formal
:
letanía
- Each Sunday, the church gathers to recite a litany that includes prayers for the sick and the needy.
- litanies of prayer
- call-and-response litany
Examples
-
Geode began the standard litany of the Spirit.
Fiction book (1998) -
So don't give up, Wren kept telling herself, the words a litany of hope to keep her confidence from failing completely.
Fiction book (1992) -
Where did you learn the litany of spells required to even understand it?
-
In my family, like the litany of all saints.
Academic text (2011) -
From the time Jeremiah could talk, he remembered this litany coming from his sister.
Fiction book (1994) -
The litany had embedded in it some relic knowledge of the colonization from Earth.
Fiction book (2000) -
The people warmly welcome Izzah; they exchange the long litanies of greeting.
Fiction book (2002) -
The Chernobyl stories told by Hungarian environmentalists resemble litanies in their invocation of a community of exposure and potential suffering.
Academic text (2001) -
During the service, the priest led the congregation in a solemn litany for peace and healing.
-
The children memorized the litany for their first communion, repeating each line after the priest.
Synonyms
187
1.7
A set of words said during a religious service
Compounds
- Informal
A long boring list of tasks you must do that people often complain about
How Fixed
Surface Forms
Etymology
Litany comes from the old Greek word litania, from litē which means 'prayer' or 'request'. A litany was originally a repeated set of prayers with a leader and answers from the people, so the word still means that kind of call-and-response prayer.