Lyrics

English Wiktionary

The EnglishWiktionaryhas a dictionary definition (meanings of a word) for:lyrics

Lyricsare the words to asong.A person who writes lyrics is called a lyricist.

The lyrics of a song will usually have a meaning. Some times the meaning is easy to find but other times it can be verydifficultto know what the lyrics mean. Some lyrics are so strange that it is nearly impossible to understand them. In such cases, people tend to look more at theform,articulation,meter,andsymmetriesof the lyrics instead of looking at their meaning.

There are manywebsitesthat have the lyrics to songs. This may be a bad thing since many web sites includecopyrightedlyrics without permission from the copyright holder. TheUnited StatesMusic Publishers' Association(MPA), which representssheet musiccompanies,created acampaignagainst such sites in December 2005. MPA presidentLauren Keisersaid that the sites are "completely illegal" and that he wanted to see some site operators put inprison.

Etymology and usage

"Lyric" is from theGreek;alyricwas originally a song sung with alyre.

Alyric poemis one that expresses a subjective, personal point of view.

I would be the Lyric

Ever on the lip,

Rather than theEpic

Memory lets die.

–Thomas Bailey Aldrich

The wordlyricwas used for the "words of a popular song" about1876[1]for the first time. The plurallyricswas used only in referring to the words of several songs. That it is used for the words of a single song as itslyricsbecame increasingly common (probably because of the association betweenlyricsand the plural formwords), and is common in modern usage of today's society. Use of the singular formlyricis still grammatically acceptable.