swan song
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.82 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A final performance or accomplishment, especially one before retirement.
Example Sentences
- "Yet, on the whole, our good Saint-Pierre is musical, poetical though most morbid: we will call his Book the swan-song of old dying France."
- "In no other way can be explained our sacrifices and martyrdoms. For no other reason did Rudolph Mendenhall flame out his soul for the Cause and sing his wild swan-song that last night of life."
- ""A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"[…]—a pretentious volume which Mark Twain really considered his last. "It's my swan-song, my retirement from literature permanently," he wrote Howells, though certainly he was young, fifty-four, to have reached this conclusion."
- "Je ne parle pas français. That was her swan song for me."
- "[…]McCartney III could mark the end of his recording career. For a musician as continually prolific as McCartney (this is his 18th solo record), that seems unlikely. But if it is indeed a swan song, McCartney III will stand as a proper coda for the singer-songwriter we’ve been listening to for fifty-odd years: sentimental yet strong, a bit wistful, but as always, looking ahead."
- "Merkel’s political and scientific sides slug it out in swan song presser [title]"
Etymology
Word Breakdown
- Root: *swenh₂-