Cyclops
//ˈsaɪˌklɑps// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A one-eyed giant from Greek and Roman mythology. Greek, Roman
- 2 minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms wordnet
- 3 A one-eyed creature of any species.
- 4 (Greek mythology) one of a group of giants having a single eye in the middle of their forehead wordnet
- 5 A person with only one working eye. derogatory
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 Any copepod in the genus Cyclops.
- 7 A small magnifying lens in the crystal of a watch to aid in reading the date.
Example
More examples"The Cyclops lifted his cyclopean body out of his cyclopean bed and set about to the cyclopean task of cleaning up the entirety of his cyclopean lair."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cyclōps, from Ancient Greek Κύκλωψ (Kúklōps, “Cyclops”). The sense for copepods is a semantic loan from translingual Cyclops.
Related phrases
More for "cyclops"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.