Words / J / General

jeremiad

noun/ˌdʒɛrɪˈmʌɪad/

C2CEFR level
90/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

A long, mournful complaint or lamentation, especially about the state of things.

His memoir descended into a jeremiad about the decline of manners and decency.

Similar: lament, complaint, tirade

Origin: From the prophet Jeremiah, author of the biblical Lamentations.

Topic: lamentation in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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