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What Does the Root Word Hydra Mean

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hydra

This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.

noun, plural hy·dras, hy·drae [hahy-dree] /ˈhaɪ dri/ for 1-3, genitive hy·drae [hahy-dree] /ˈhaɪ dri/ for 4.

(often initial capital letter)Classical Mythology. a water or marsh serpent with nine heads, each of which, if cut off, grew back as two; Hercules killed this serpent by cauterizing the necks as he cut off the heads.

any freshwater polyp of the genus Hydra and related genera, having a cylindrical body with a ring of tentacles surrounding the mouth, and usually living attached to rocks, plants, etc., but also capable of detaching and floating in the water.

a persistent or many-sided problem that presents new obstacles as soon as one aspect is solved.

(initial capital letter)Astronomy. the Sea Serpent, a large southern constellation extending through 90° of the sky, being the longest of all constellations.

QUIZ

ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Which of the following words describes "sky blue"?

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Origin of hydra

First recorded in 1325–75; from Latin hydra, from Greek hýdrā "water serpent" (replacing Middle English ydre, from Middle French, from Latin); see otter

Words nearby hydra

Hyderabad, Hyder Ali, hydnocarpate, hydnocarpic acid, hydr-, hydra, hydracid, hydragogue, hydra-headed, hydralazine, hydramine

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Words related to hydra

bane, burden, calamity, disaster, evil, jinx, scourge, blight, pest, contagion, curse, epidemic, infection, infestation, influenza, invasion, outbreak, pandemic, tumor, affliction

How to use hydra in a sentence

  • As long as that remains the case, harassing groups can attack like hydras, unafraid to lose one, two, or three hundred heads if it means they damage their targets.

  • The Technion group microscopically examined a piece of hydra tissue as it regenerated, particularly its multicellular fibers that lie parallel to the long axis of a mature hydra.

  • In 2020, physicists and biologists at the Technion in Israel analyzed the hydra, a fresh-water animal up to a centimeter long.

  • Something about the hydra's way of life may have made these traits advantageous, Tobler suggests.

  • The new revelations about sleep in hydras push the sleep discoveries to a new extreme.

  • But this may be like the Hydra, where something new can grow in its place.

  • Antifragile things, meanwhile, are strengthened by it—just as Hydra grows stronger and more multiheaded with every decapitation.

  • Editor's note: An earlier version of this article confused the monster Hydra with Medusa.

  • The gang is a hydra, he said, and Suffolk County has seen fluctuations in gang activity.

  • But the animal itself is the same "hydra-headed monster," let whomsoever may fancy to pet it.

  • I aimed at the many-headed hydra whose visible representative was Frick.

  • The Homestead developments had given him temporary prominence, thrown this particular hydra-head into bold relief, so to speak.

  • Evil complicates, by one knows not what hydra-headed monstrosity, the vast, cosmic whole.

  • Navigation everywhere contends with the same monster; the sea is one hydra.

British Dictionary definitions for hydra (1 of 3)

noun plural -dras or -drae (-driː)

any solitary freshwater hydroid coelenterate of the genus Hydra, in which the body is a slender polyp with tentacles around the mouth

a persistent trouble or evil the hydra of the Irish problem

Word Origin for hydra

C16: from Latin, from Greek hudra water serpent; compare otter

British Dictionary definitions for hydra (2 of 3)

noun

Greek myth a monster with nine heads, each of which, when struck off, was replaced by two new ones

British Dictionary definitions for hydra (3 of 3)

noun Latin genitive Hydrae (ˈhaɪdriː)

a very long faint constellation lying mainly in the S hemisphere and extending from near Virgo to Cancer

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

Scientific definitions for hydra

Plural hydras hydrae (hī′drē)

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

What Does the Root Word Hydra Mean

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hydra