Gordian

adj, name

adj, name ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to Gordium (now Yassihüyük in Turkey), capital of Phrygia.
  2. 2
    Alternative form of Gordian. alt-of, alternative, not-comparable

    "The final disentanglement of sister chromatids can only be achieved by cleavage of the "gordian knot" by separin."

  3. 3
    Of or pertaining to Gordius, king of Phrygia
  4. 4
    Of the Gordian knot.
  5. 5
    Twisted; convoluted; tied as a knot.

    "[…] cloſe the Serpent ſly, Inſinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train, […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    extremely intricate; usually in phrase ‘Gordian knot’ wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Gordianus, name of three Roman emperors.

Synonyms

All synonyms
byzantinecomplexcomplicatedconvoluteddaedalelaborate

Example

More examples

"That was a 'cutting the Gordian knot' type of solution."

Etymology

From Gordius + -an or Gordium + -an.

Related phrases

Gordian knotgordian knot

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.