panegyric
pan-uh-JEER-iknounMeaning a public speech or piece of writing of great praise
Memory hook PAN = ALL: praise in front of ALL. At the school assembly, in front of everyone, the principal praises Mr. Marcus for forty years of fixing, sweeping and smiling; her speech is a panegyric.
The principal’s panegyric for the retiring janitor brought the whole school to its feet.
In context The biography reads less like history than a panegyric: it praises every decision its subject ever made and leaves out all of his mistakes.
Similar tribute, eulogy, homage, praise
Opposite criticism, tirade, diatribe
From Greek panegyrikos, “for a festival of all the people,” from panegyris (a public gathering): pan- (all) + agyris (assembly).