Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use litany in a sentence

14 example sentences · noun

Litany means a ritual liturgical prayer in which a series of prayers recited by a leader are alternated with responses from the congregation. Example: “He added a long litany of peripheral precedents which the judge dismissed as mere makeweights.”

Examples of litany by meaning

nounA prolonged or tedious list.

  • 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.2009 July 22, Josie Litton, Come Back to Me: A Novel (Viking & Saxon), Random House Publishing Group, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 102
  • There are, to be sure, some differences in how the candidates propose addressing this litany of concerns.2016 January 30, “America deserves more from presidential hopefuls”, in The National, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2016, retrieved...

More sentences with litany

  • He added a long litany of peripheral precedents which the judge dismissed as mere makeweights.From the entry makeweight
  • This litany of travails is soul-crushing.From the entry soul-crushing
  • They use words like appraisal, evaluation, assessment, their Roget's litany, to avoid the constrained "test" connotation.1987, Robert Mills Gagné, Instructional Technology: Foundations, page 364. From the entry Roget's
  • It’s sincerely not worth running through the entire litany again; simply consider The Post’s Fact Checker articles as an effective rejoinder.2020, The Washington Post. From the entry cruft
  • Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan is stepping down effective immediately as the bank struggles to overcome a litany of scandals.2019 March 28, Matt Egan, “Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan steps down suddenly”, in CNN Business. From the entry TIM
  • There’s a sick comfort in reciting this litany of defects.2015, Deborah Moggach, “Oreya, West Africa”, in Something to Hide, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, part 2, page 180. From the entry bit by bit
  • Nostalgically, Bill Feingold intones the excruciating litany.1998 May 25, David Van Biema, “Endangered Conspirators”, in Time, volume 151, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry nostalgically
  • The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey. From the entry horrible
  • My bewildered mind was deep in ponderment, and the distant croaking of ravens blended in evil litany with my thoughts.1937 April, Robert Bloch, “The Mannikin”, in Weird Tales, volume 29, number 4, page 450. From the entry ponderment
  • Such litanies of equilibrium in economics annually agitate the Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, and lugubriate in the worldly wisdom of such sages.2011, John Mauldin, Just One Thing: Twelve of the World's Best Investors Reveal the One Strategy You Can't Overlook, John Wiley & Sons…. From the entry lugubriate
  • “Pretty dangerous, kid, I mean walking the trail alone.” The elderly driver smacked his lips as he launched into a litany of doom.1985 October, Harry Harrison, chapter 10, in A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born (Stainless Steel Rat; 1), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Spectra, →ISBN. From the entry direwolf
  • Countless issues arise in family life every day, from the litany of no-noes showered on the toddler, to calling the preschooler in for his lunch.1975, James H. Ryan, Pablum, Parents & Pandemonium: Glimpses of a Pediatrician’s World, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, →ISBN…. From the entry no-no

Meaning of litany

  1. noun A ritual liturgical prayer in which a series of prayers recited by a leader are alternated with responses from the congregation.
  2. noun A prolonged or tedious list.

Full definition of litany

Questions about litany in a sentence

How do you use litany in a sentence?
Litany is used as a noun. For example: “He added a long litany of peripheral precedents which the judge dismissed as mere makeweights.”
What is a short sentence with litany?
“This litany of travails is soul-crushing.”
What does litany mean?
Litany means a ritual liturgical prayer in which a series of prayers recited by a leader are alternated with responses from the congregation.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: litany (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use litany in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/litany. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.