Orontes

//ɔːˈɹɒntiːz// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A river in West Asia, about 400 km (250 mi) long, flowing from Lebanon through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandağ in Turkey.
  2. 2
    The name of any one of a number of ancient Armenian kings.

Synonyms

All synonyms
asi

Example

More examples

"One, that bore / the brave Orontes and his Lycian crew, / full in AEneas' sight a toppling wave o'erthrew. / Dashed from the tiller, down the pilot rolled. / Thrice round the billow whirled her, as she lay, / then whelmed below."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin Orontēs, from Ancient Greek Ὀρόντης (Oróntēs), from Akkadian 𒀀𒊏𒀭𒌓 (Arāntu, “Orontes; site of the Battle of Qarqar”) and also in Egyptian jrnt (“Orontes; river flowing by Qadesh”) attested at least from the period of Ramesses II: * The meaning of which is contested with connections to: Akkadian 𒀀𒊏𒀭𒌓 (arantu, “a type of grass; fennel”), perhaps in connection to the region around the city of Ugarit, the ruins today being known as رَأْس شَمْرَة (raʔs šamra, “Headland or Cape Fennel”). * Also connected to Akkadian 𒀀𒊏𒀭𒁺 (araddu, arantu, “wild ass; stubborn”), possibly related to the modern name for the river الْعَاصِي (al-ʕāṣī, “rebel, stubbornly in error, refusing to be corrected”) so-called for its flowing south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region. * Disputably from Old Median *Arvand; compare Avestan 𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬧𐬝- (aᵘruuaṇt̰-, “swift”). Doublet of Alvand and Arvand. More at Orontes.

Etymology 2

From Latin Orontēs, from Ancient Greek Ὀρόντης (Oróntēs), from Old Median *Arēvand, from Proto-Iranian *Raivant-, *Rayivant- (“possessing wealth”); see Old Armenian Երուանդ (Eruand) for more.

Related phrases

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