A lyric is the words of a song. When you sing along to your favorite song, you're singing the lyrics. Some songs have clever, poetic lyrics that tell stories or paint vivid pictures. Others have simple, catchy lyrics that get stuck in your head. Songwriters spend hours crafting lyrics that flow well with the melody and express emotions or ideas powerfully.

Today, we still use lyrical to describe writing or speech that has a musical, flowing quality, like when a nature writer uses lyrical descriptions of a sunset that almost sound like poetry.

You'll often see lyrics printed on album covers or websites so fans can learn the words. Sometimes listeners mishear lyrics and sing the wrong words for years, creating funny mistakes called mondegreens. When a song has particularly meaningful or beautiful lyrics, people might say it's lyrically strong, meaning the words themselves are impressive, not just the tune.