noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A mythical beast found in Egyptian sculpture and European heraldry, being a lion with the head of a falcon.

Etymology

Ancient Greek ἱεράκων (hierákōn, “hawk”) and Σφίγξ (Sphínx, “Sphinx”), from σφίγγω (sphíngō, “to squeeze”)

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