elegiac

UK: /ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək/ US: (el′i jī′ək, -ak, i lē′jē ak′)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

el•e•gi•ac  (el′i jī′ək, -ak, i lē′jē ak′), adj. Also, el′e•gi′a•cal. 

1. Poetry used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
2. expressing sorrow or lamentation:
   elegiac strains.
3. Poetry [Class. Pros.] noting a distich the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.

n. 

4. Poetry an elegiac or distich verse.
5. Poetry a poem in such distichs or verses.

• Greek elegeiakós. See elegy, -ac
• Latin elegīacus
• Middle French)
• (1575–85

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

elegiac / ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək/ adjective

1. resembling, characteristic of, relating to, or appropriate to an elegy
2. lamenting; mournful; plaintive
3. denoting or written in elegiac couplets or elegiac stanzas
   Also (archaic): elegiacal

noun

1. (often plural) an elegiac couplet or stanza

ˌeleˈgiacally adverb