Apollyon
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The destroying angel of the abyss, the undoer or disintegrator.
"A great black bird, Apollyon's bosom-friend, / Sailed past, nor beat his wide wing dragon-penned / That brushed my cap—perchance the guide I sought."
Example
More examples"He anxiously descended the ladder, and started homewards at a run, trying not to think of giants, Herne the Hunter, Apollyon lying in wait for Christian, or of the captain with the bleeding hole in his forehead and the corpses round him that remutinied every night on board the bewitched ship."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Ἀπολλύων (Apollúōn, “Apollyon, the destroyer”), from ἀπόλλυμι (apóllumi, “utterly destroy”) via phono-semantic matching with Biblical Hebrew אֲבַדּוֹן (ʾaḇaddôn, “destruction, ruin”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.