Elegy or eulogy?
elegy is a noun meaning “A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation”; eulogy is a noun meaning “An oration to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) eulogy is about 2.0 times as common as elegy.
What is the difference between elegy and eulogy?
| elegy | eulogy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation A composition of mournful character | An oration to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral Speaking highly of someone or something; the act of praising or commending someone or something |
| Example | funeral elegy | none recorded |
| Forms | elegies | eulogies |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɛlɪd͡ʒi/ | /ˈjuː.lə.d͡ʒi/ /ˈju.lə.d͡ʒi/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 1.0 times per million words |
Sources: elegy and eulogy in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of elegy and eulogy
elegy
- 1
A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation
funeral elegy
- 2
A composition of mournful character
- 3
A classical poem written in elegiac meter
eulogy
- 1
An oration to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral
- 2
Speaking highly of someone or something; the act of praising or commending someone or something
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, elegy or eulogy?
elegy appears about once in every 2 million words; eulogy 1.0 times per million words.
elegy about once in every 2 million wordseulogy 1.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search elegy vs eulogy?
“elegy vs eulogy” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“eulogy vs elegy”, “elegy or eulogy”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.