litany Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any long and tedious address or recital
    • the patient recited a litany of complaints
    • a litany of failures
  2. noun a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation

WordNet

Lit"a*ny noun
Etymology
OE. letanie, OF. letanie, F. litanie, L. litania, Gr. , fr. to pray, akin to , , to pray, prayer.
Wordforms
plural Litanies
Definitions
  1. A solemn form of supplication in the public worship of various churches, in which the clergy and congregation join, the former leading and the latter responding in alternate sentences. It is usually of a penitential character.
    Supplications . . . for the appeasing of God's wrath were of the Greek church termed litanies, and rogations of the Latin. Hooker.

Webster 1913