An artist long characterized by her knack for lyricism, Taylor Swift indulges fans and critics alike in her latest work, a double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”
The work, released on April 19, consists of a whopping 31 tracks, including songs with appearances from Post Malone and Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine.
With a smattering of lyrical references that some are calling “uncharacteristically juvenile, shallow and pedestrian” and others, such as The Guardian, liken to “songwriting gold,” the 14-time Grammy winner’s newest project has attracted mixed reviews.
Despite how it’s received, critics and fans alike seem to agree on one thing about the album: “The Tortured Poets Department” is incredibly lyrically dense.
Put simply, there are a lot of sophisticated words in the album — so many that searches for title tracks like “What is a fortnight?” exploded over 800% after the album’s release, according to Google search data analysis by QR Code Generator.
So, we enter into evidence definitions for some of the album’s most tortured word choices.
All definitions have been taken from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Words are listed chronologically in the order they appear on the album.
