Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A song of praise or thanksgiving to God or a deity.
  • noun A song of praise or joy; a paean.
  • intransitive verb To praise, glorify, or worship in or as if in a hymn.
  • intransitive verb To sing hymns.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To celebrate or worship in song; address hymns to; salute with song.
  • To express in a hymn; sing as a hymn: as, “hymned thanks,”
  • To sing hymns.
  • noun In general, a religious ode, song, or other poem: as, the Homeric hymns; the hymns of Pindar.
  • noun Specifically A metrical formula of public worship, usually designed to be sung by a company of worshipers.
  • noun In a narrow sense, an extra-Biblical poem of worship: opposed to psalm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An ode or song of praise or adoration; especially, a religious ode, a sacred lyric; a song of praise or thanksgiving intended to be used in religious service
  • noun a book containing a collection of hymns, as for use in churches; a hymnal.
  • transitive verb To praise in song; to worship or extol by singing hymns; to sing.
  • intransitive verb To sing in praise or adoration.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A song of praise or worship.
  • verb To sing a hymn; to praise or worship by singing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb sing a hymn
  • verb praise by singing a hymn
  • noun a song of praise (to God or to a saint or to a nation)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English imne, from Old French ymne, from Latin hymnus, song of praise, from Greek humnos.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ymne, borrowed from Old French ymne, from Latin hymnus, borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕμνος (hymnos)

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Examples

Comments

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  • I think the "n" is only there so you can say "hymnal."

    October 4, 2007

  • Solemn and reverent.

    December 18, 2007