ambrosia

[ am-broh-zhuh ]
See synonyms for ambrosia on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Classical Mythology. the food of the gods.: Compare nectar (def. 3).

  2. something especially delicious to taste or smell.

  1. a fruit dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut and sometimes pineapple.

Origin of ambrosia

1
1545–55; <Latin <Greek: immortality, food of the gods, noun use of feminine of ambrósios, equivalent to a-a-6 + -mbros- (combining form of brotōsmortal; akin to Latin mortuus dead, murder) + -ios adj. suffix; replacing Middle English ambrose, ambrosie<Old French ambroise<Latin

Words Nearby ambrosia

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ambrosia in a sentence

  • The gods themselves were fed on nectar and ambrosia, that they might not die like ordinary mortals.

  • This was long before the days of Dunbar's pollantin, Holbrook Curtis' ambrosia, adrenalin, and the modern vaccines.

    The Treatment of Hay Fever | George Frederick Laidlaw
  • Thatcher has filled me amply with expensive urban food in this sylvan retreat—nectar and ambrosia.

    A Hoosier Chronicle | Meredith Nicholson
  • To Achilles, lamenting the death of Patroclus, she came with nectar and ambrosia, that his limbs might not grow faint with hunger.

    Greek Sculpture | Estelle M. Hurll
  • Even the gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life.

    Myths of Babylonia and Assyria | Donald A. Mackenzie

British Dictionary definitions for ambrosia

ambrosia

/ (æmˈbrəʊzɪə) /


noun
  1. classical myth the food of the gods, said to bestow immortality: Compare nectar (def. 2)

  2. anything particularly delightful to taste or smell

  1. another name for beebread

  2. any of various herbaceous plants constituting the genus Ambrosia, mostly native to America but widely naturalized: family Asteraceae (composites). The genus includes the ragweeds

Origin of ambrosia

1
C16: via Latin from Greek: immortality, from ambrotos, from a- 1 + brotos mortal

Derived forms of ambrosia

  • ambrosial or ambrosian, adjective
  • ambrosially, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for ambrosia

ambrosia

[ (am-broh-zhuh) ]


The food of the gods in classical mythology. Those who ate it became immortal.

Notes for ambrosia

Particularly delicious food is sometimes called “ambrosia.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.