Cephalophore
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of a group of saints depicted in art carrying heads in their hands.
"According to William of Worcester, quite a large number of Cornish saints were cephalophores: besides S. Nectan and S. Willow, he tells us that “there were three brothers under the name of Genesius and each one carried his head.”"
- 2 Synonym of cephalopod: a mollusk of the class Cephalopoda. obsolete
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"According to William of Worcester, quite a large number of Cornish saints were cephalophores: besides S. Nectan and S. Willow, he tells us that “there were three brothers under the name of Genesius and each one carried his head.”"
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”) + -φορος (-phoros, “bearing”), a derivative of φέρω (phérō, “I bear, I carry”); in the Christian sense, via French céphalophore, coined by Marcel Hébert in 1914.
More for "cephalophore"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.