Phoenix Definition

fēniks

noun

A beautiful, lone bird which lives in the Arabian desert for 500 or 600 years and then sets itself on fire, rising renewed from the ashes to start another long life: a symbol of immortality.

Webster's New World

A person or thing of unsurpassed excellence or beauty; a paragon.

American Heritage

A S constellation between Eridanus and Grus.

Webster's New World

(figuratively) Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed. Usually used as a simile.

Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes.

Wiktionary

(mythology) A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
capital of Arizona
genus Phoenix
symbol
statue
paragon
bird
mythical monster
symbol of immortality
nonesuch
nonpareil

pronoun

(astronomy) A spring constellation of the southern sky, said to resemble the mythical bird. It lies north of Tucana.

Wiktionary

(mythology) A mythical firebird; especially the sacred one from ancient Egyptian mythology.

Wiktionary

(Greek mythology) A character in the Iliad and father of Adonis in Greek mythology or a different character in Greek mythology, brother of Europa and Cadmus.

Wiktionary

The capital city of Arizona, United States.

Wiktionary

A nickname sometimes used for Japan after World War II.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Phoenix

Noun

Singular:

phoenix

Plural:

phoenixes

Origin of Phoenix

From Latin phoenÄ«x, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoÄ©nix), from Egyptian bnw (boinu, “grey heron"). The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.

From Wiktionary
Middle English fenix from Old English Old French both from Medieval Latin fēnix from Latin phoenix from Greek phoinix

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Latin phoenÄ«x, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoinix), Φοῖνιξ (Phoinix)

From Wiktionary