litany
English
Etymology
Middle English, from Old French letanie, from Ancient Greek λιτανεία (litaneía, “prayer”), from λιτή (litḗ, “prayer, entreaty”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈlɪtəni/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun
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), 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:
- [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
Translations
ritual liturgical prayer
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prolonged or tedious list
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