Definitions

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

  • noun A mass for a deceased person.
  • noun A musical composition for such a mass.
  • noun A hymn, composition, or service for the dead.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the Roman Catholic Church, the mass for the dead.
  • noun A musical setting of the mass for the dead.
  • noun Hence, in popular usage, a musical service or hymn for the dead. Compare the popular use of dirge.
  • noun Rest; quiet; peace.
  • noun Synonyms Dirge, Elegy, etc. See dirge.

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

  • noun (R.C.Ch.) A mass said or sung for the repose of a departed soul.
  • noun Any grand musical composition, performed in honor of a deceased person.
  • noun obsolete Rest; quiet; peace.

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

  • noun A mass (especially Catholic) to honor and remember a dead person.
  • noun A musical composition for such a mass.
  • noun A piece of music composed to honor a dead person.

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

  • noun a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person
  • noun a Mass celebrated for the dead
  • noun a musical setting for a Mass celebrating the dead

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Latin, accusative of requiēs, rest, the first word of the mass for the dead : re-, re- + quiēs, quiet; see kweiə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The first word of the introit for the traditional requiem mass, an alternative accusative case of Latin requiēs ("rest, repose"), from re- ("again") + quiēs ("rest, quiet").

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Examples

  • KODAMA: I think Clint Eastwood produced this film as a-- what I called a requiem for the repose of souls of the war dead, including both the Japanese as well as U.S. soldiers who fought on the island of Iwo Jima.

    CNN Transcript Dec 22, 2006 2006

  • When any of these Masses are said in black vestments they are called Requiem Masses, because the priest offers them for the rest or happy repose of the soul of some dead person or persons, and the word requiem means rest.

    Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine Thomas L. Kinkead

  • To take only two significant points: it sounds very sentimental to be told that the girl Ua, after Kaaialii had jumped into the vortex "wailed upon the winds a requiem of love and grief," but a native Hawaiian has no more notion of the word requiem than he has of a syllogism.

    Primitive Love and Love-Stories Henry Theophilus Finck 1890

  • For thee the requiem is sung with deepest pathos, its plaintive music rolling up from a thousand vocal temples from countless throbbing hearts.

    The Martyr to Liberty 1865

  • Alan Greenspan, delivered in Congress what some called a requiem for decades 'worth of economic teaching.

    The Situationist 2009

  • Tpoya's so called requiem's are usually not celebrated in even in purple they are in white, one is lucky if any prayers are made for the repose of the soul and instead we get a panagyeric on how good the deceased was: "never came to mass but love his garden" etc etc, all accompanied by a few modern hymns or even worse a tape of some popular song: My Way or the like.

    Irish cathedral to ban the use of secular songs in ceremonies 2009

  • In the end, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" may be more accurately called a requiem for black New Orleans, with some whites thrown in for spice.

    Stacy Parker Aab: Spike Lee Can't Be the Last Word in Fact-Finding: Support the 8-29 Commission 2008

  • In the end, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" may be more accurately called a requiem for black New Orleans, with some whites thrown in for spice.

    Stacy Parker Aab: Spike Lee Can't Be the Last Word in Fact-Finding: Support the 8-29 Commission 2007

  • You know ,I have some requiem gold,and my friend also has some requiem lant,do you kouw they have the same meaning,Both of them can be called requiem money,I just want to requiem online gold,because there are many buy priston tale Gold

    IMBB: Son-in-law eggs Niki 2005

  • He could only insist that the requiem should be the first occasion of the young ladies going out of the convent; but they had so many visitors there that they had not much cause for murmuring, and the French instructions of Sister Beata did not amount to much, even with Eleanor, while Jean loudly protested that she was not going to school.

    Two Penniless Princesses Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

Comments

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  • Could I write a requiem for you when you're dead?

    "She had the moves, she had the speed, it went to her head

    She never needed anyone to get her round the track

    But when she's on her back

    She had the knowledge

    To get her into college

    But when she's on her back

    She had the knowledge

    To get her what she wanted."

    (The stars of track and field, by Belle and Sebastian)

    August 24, 2008

  • A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead (Latin: Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead (Latin: Missa defunctorum), is Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular formula of the Roman Missal. It is frequently, but not necessarily, celebrated in the context of a funeral.

    July 9, 2011