swan song
noun
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Swans don't sing. They whistle or trumpet, or in the case of the swan most common in ponds, the mute swan, they only hiss and snort. But according to ancient legend, the swan does sing one beautiful song in its life-just before it dies. References in English to the dying swan's lovely singing go back as far as Chaucer, but the term swan song itself didn't appear in the language until the 1830s, when Thomas Carlyle used it in Sartor Resartus. Carlyle probably based his "swan song" on the German version of the term, which is Schwanengesang or Schwanenlied.
Examples of swan song in a Sentence
Mayukh Sen, The Atlantic, 9 July 2025
Her cruise 2026 show in Rome, which blended rtw and haute couture looks, was her swan song, and her departure was confirmed last Thursday.
—Miles Socha, Footwear News, 2 June 2025
But is this run of SoFi dates a swan song to one of the most successful recording projects of our time?
—August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
Musk appeared with Trump on Friday in an Oval Office press conference, sort of a swan song as the billionaire’s official government service came to an end.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 2 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Swan song.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/swan%20song. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
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