litany
English edit
Etymology edit
Middle English, from Old French letanie, from Ancient Greek λιτανεία (litaneía, “prayer”), from λιτή (litḗ, “prayer, entreaty”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
litany (plural litanies)
- A ritual liturgical prayer in which a series of prayers recited by a leader are alternated with responses from the congregation.
- Synonym: call and response
- (figurative) A prolonged or tedious list.
- Synonym: laundry list
- 1988, Prepared Foods, volume 157, numbers 11-13, page 9:
- The litany of packaging innovations introduced to or popularized in the U.S. food market over the last generation seems endless: flexible aseptic packaging, barrier plastics, squeezables, lightweight glass, the retort pouch, […]
- 2016 January 30, “America deserves more from presidential hopefuls”, in The National, retrieved 31 January 2016:
- There are, to be sure, some differences in how the candidates propose addressing this litany of concerns.
- 2009 July 22, Josie Litton, Come Back to Me: A Novel (Viking & Saxon)[1], Random House Publishing Group, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 102:
- To that end he had sent his men among the common folk of the town, from whom came a litany of tales that led Hawk to a stunningly wrong conclusion. "It seems I may not be good enough at listening," he said regretfully.
- 2022 December 15, David A Banks, “Crypto was supposed to solve financial corruption. The FTX scandal shows it’s got worse”, in The Guardian[2]:
- [Sam Bankman-Fried] is charged with a litany of fraud and campaign finance law violations, in what US prosecutors are calling “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
ritual liturgical prayer
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prolonged or tedious list
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.