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n. Greek Mythology A priestess of Aphrodite beloved by Leander. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
Alexandrian scientist who invented many water-driven and steam-driven machines and devised a formula for deriving the area of a triangle from the lengths of its sides. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
| n. pl. he·roes 1. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed one's life: soldiers and nurses who were heroes in an unpopular war. 2. A person noted for special achievement in a particular field: the heroes of medicine. See Synonyms at celebrity. 3. The principal character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation. 4. In mythology and legend, an individual, often a man of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for bold exploits, and favored by the gods. 5. See submarine sandwich. [Early Modern English heroe, back-formation from heroes, heroes, from Latin hērōēs, plural of hērōs, demigod, heroic man, from Greek; see ser-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
