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Adonis

[uh-don-is, uh-doh-nis]

noun

Classical Mythology. a youth slain by a wild boar but permitted by Zeus to pass four months every year in the lower world with Persephone, four with Aphrodite, and four wherever he chose.

a very handsome young man.

Origin:
1615–25 for def. 2

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Adonis is always a great word to know.

So is hero. Does it mean:

a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity

a daughter of Oedipus who defied her uncle, King Creon, by performing funeral rites over her brother and condemned to be immured alive in a cave

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Example Sentences

Adonis sets loose among these people fears and jealousies that are as treacherous as they are amusing.

Collins

World English Dictionary

Adonis (əˈdəʊnɪs)

—n
1.	Greek myth a handsome youth loved by Aphrodite. Killed by a wild boar, he was believed to spend part of the year in the underworld and part on earth, symbolizing the vegetative cycle
2.	a handsome young man

[C16: from Latin, via Greek Adōnis from Phoenician adōni my lord, a title of the god Tammuz; related to Hebrew Adonai]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

Adonis

"a beau," 1620s, from Gk. Adonis, name of the youth beloved by Aphrodite, from Phoenician adon "lord," probably originally "ruler," from base a-d-n "to judge, rule." Adonai, an O.T. word for "God," is the Heb. cognate, with pl. of majesty.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary