Janus
name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The god of doorways, gates and transitions, and of beginnings and endings, having two faces looking in opposite directions. Roman
"In the ages of victory, as often as the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus. Domestic war now rendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new religion. But the brazen temple of Janus was left standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with two faces, directed to the east and west."
- 2 Used to indicate things with two faces (such as animals with diprosopus) or aspects; or made of two different materials; or having a two-way action. attributive
"Janus cat, Janus particle"
- 3 Used to indicate things with two faces (such as animals with diprosopus) or aspects; or made of two different materials; or having a two-way action.; Used to indicate an azo dye with a quaternary ammonium group, frequently with the diazo component being safranine. attributive
"Janus green B is a dye used widely in histology to stain cells for microscopic examination."
- 4 A two-faced person, a hypocrite. figuratively
"The hypocrite; or, The modern Janus."
- 5 A moon of Saturn.
"Heavily cratered and irregularly shaped, Janus orbits Saturn just beyond the F ring and only 50km (30 miles) farther away than its co-orbital moon, Epimetheus."
Example
More examples""Then wars shall cease and savage times grow mild, / and Remus and Quirinus, brethren twain, / with hoary Faith and Vesta undefiled, / shall give the law. With iron bolt and chain / firm-closed the gates of Janus shall remain. / Within, the Fiend of Discord, high reclined / on horrid arms, unheeded in the fane, / bound with a hundred brazen knots behind, / and grim with gory jaws, his grisly teeth shall grind.""
Etymology
From Latin Iānus (“the Roman god Janus”).
Related phrases
More for "janus"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.