Achilles - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

A·chil·les

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–noun Classical Mythology.

the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War and hero of Homer's Iliad. He killed Hector and was killed when Paris wounded him in the heel, his one vulnerable spot, with an arrow.

—Related forms

Ach·il·le·an

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n, uh-kil-ee-] Pronunciation Key, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Achilles

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

A·chil·les Audio Help (ə-kĭl'ēz) Pronunciation Key
n. Greek Mythology
The hero of Homer's Iliad, the son of Peleus and Thetis and slayer of Hector.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

achilles
noun
a mythical Greek hero of the Iliad; a foremost Greek warrior at the siege of Troy; when he was a baby his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable--his 'Achilles' heel'

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
Achilles [(uh-kil-eez)]

In classical mythology, the greatest warrior on the Greek side in the Trojan War. When he was an infant, his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river, but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable. During the Trojan War, he quarreled with the commander, Agamemnon, and in anger sulked in his tent. Eventually Achilles emerged to fight and killed the Trojan hero Hector, but he was wounded in the heel by an arrow and died shortly thereafter.

Note: People speak of an “Achilles' heel” as the one weak or sore point in a person's character.

Note: The Achilles tendon runs from the heel to the calf.

Note: Achilles is the hero of Homer's Iliad.

Note: The phrase “wrath of Achilles” refers to the hero's anger, which caused so much destruction that Homer refers to it as his main theme in the first line of the Iliad.

[Chapter:] Mythology and Folklore

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