Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry.
The bishop chants litanies and says five more orations.
Such litanies readily create impressive-looking documents of what is in the music, but only rarely provide any meaningful insight into why.
Here we have fasting, alms-giving, prayers, and a special three-day programme of litanies, with priests walking barefoot to church — all in support of a military emergency.
Furthermore, the litanies of» respectable fears» and» moral panics» are only one of the discourses about» law and order» found in popular, political, or academic discussion over the last century.
The very categories that appear in the litany of difference are problematic.
Empedocles presents a litany of the illusions that plague society, including the simile of the injured child.
The idea is to hear a litany of names being remembered and honored and sent onward as volunteers flow steadily to and from the fireplaces.
One year missing from this litany of successful street protest is 1981.
The land tenure regime is also blamed for a litany of other ills.
The painting reminds us that life is a litany of losses.
With his ‘neither-nor’ litany, he seems to set himself apart from his colleagues, implying that their struggles are not his.
Witnesses testified to the owner’s litany of malpractices and liability for the numerous deaths from inhalation of toxic smoke.
The constant litany of theorists appears like a fundamentalist creed invoked by a repentant apostate rather than a description of the author’s analytical toolbox.
The disadvantages, of course, we are well familiar with, and the usual litany of complaints about machineirreproducible complexities of sound applies.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
1
: a prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation
2
a
: a resonant or repetitive chant
a litany of cheering phrases—
Herman Wouk
b
: a usually lengthy recitation or enumeration
a familiar litany of complaints
c
: a sizable series or set
The drug has a litany of possible side effects.
Did you know?
How do we love the word litany? Let us count the ways. We love its original 13th century meaning, still in use today, referring to a call-and-response prayer in which a series of lines are spoken alternately by a leader and a congregation. We love how litany has developed in the intervening centuries three figurative senses, and we love each of these as well: first, a sense meaning “repetitive chant”; next, the “lengthy recitation” sense owing to the repetitious—and sometimes interminable—nature of the original litany; and finally, an even broader sense referring to any sizeable series or set. Though litanies of this third sort tend to be unpleasant, we choose today to think of the loveliness found in the idea of “a litany of sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.”
Example Sentences
He has a litany of grievances against his former employer.
The team blamed its losses on a litany of injuries.
Recent Examples on the Web
In these areas, a litany of severe weather conditions are possible including large hail, damaging winds, thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes.
—Beck Andrew Salgado, Journal Sentinel, 30 Mar. 2023
Purchasing crypto derivatives in the US requires a litany of protections, including safeguards for investors and strict guardrails against money-laundering risks.
—Diego Lasarte, Quartz, 27 Mar. 2023
Since then he’s been well-regarded for a litany of projects, including many years as an Oscars host, a stint on Saturday Night Live, voicing Mike in the Monsters Inc. franchise, and live-action films such as Mr. Saturday Night, Analyze This, and City Slickers.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 15 Mar. 2023
At a more than two-hour sentencing hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Providence Tuesday, prosecutors and victims described the litany of Cavanaugh’s schemes, from bilking charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to cadging beers at a local bar.
—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Mar. 2023
Departing from Istanbul on Nov. 1, the ship’s itinerary shows a litany of stops, from Aberdeen, Scotland, to Zhanjiang, China.
—Chris Morris, Fortune, 3 Mar. 2023
Her girlhood is a litany of loss: of her gentle father; of her family home, bombed during the war; and of much else besides.
—Anne Fadiman, Harper’s Magazine , 1 Mar. 2023
The freshman New York lawmaker, whose litany of false and misleading claims about his past has left him with few allies, even among his fellow Republicans, previously worked for an investment firm known as the Harbor City Capital Corporation.
—CBS News, 9 Feb. 2023
At one point, a quick litany of flashbacks involving youth, compromise and loss play out against nothing but the actor’s reactions; each small shift in his expression moves you along the line of his memories.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Dec. 2022
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘litany.’ 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
Middle English letanie, from Anglo-French & Late Latin; Anglo-French, from Late Latin litania, from Late Greek litaneia, from Greek, entreaty, from litanos supplicant
First Known Use
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of litany was
in the 13th century
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Cite this Entry
“Litany.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/litany. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
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10 Apr 2023
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Other forms: litanies
A litany is a long, repetitive list or series of grievances, like your picky brother’s litany of complaints about dinner or the litany of critical comments your English teacher writes in the margins of your essay.
The original meaning of litany is a purely religious one. During some Christian services, a member of the clergy recites a litany, a lengthy call-and-response type of prayer. The word’s Greek root means «entreaty,» and in this religious context, that’s an entreaty to God. Its more popular, secular meaning tends to be used in a negative way, as in your grandpa’s litany of aches and pains or the litany of complaints from passengers on a stalled subway car.
Definitions of litany
-
noun
a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the clergy with responses from the congregation
-
noun
any long and tedious address or recital
“the patient recited a
litany of complaints”“a
litany of failures”
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘litany’.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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