Pyrrhic
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An Ancient Greek war dance.
- 2 an ancient Greek dance imitating the motions of warfare wordnet
- 3 A metric foot with two short or unaccented syllables.
- 4 a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables wordnet
- 1 Of or characterized by pyrrhics (metrical feet with two short syllables). not-comparable
- 2 Of or relating to Pyrrhus (319/318–272 BC), Greek general and statesman. not-comparable
"The Pyrrhic army lost the Pyrrhic war."
- 3 Relating to Pyrrhus, a Macedonian king, or some of his costly victories he had while fighting Rome. not-comparable
- 4 Achieved at too great a cost or detriment to have been worthwhile (as a victory, accomplishment, etc).
"Although this syndrome is thought to resemble patterns of Pyrrhic revenge […]"
- 5 Alternative letter-case form of Pyrrhic (“achieved at too great a cost”). alt-of, not-comparable
"Huwawa is slain; the victors triumph, but the victory is to be a pyrrhic one for Gilgamesh, for the gods have met in counsel and decreed that Enkidu should die."
- 1 of or relating to or resembling Pyrrhus or his exploits (especially his sustaining staggering losses in order to defeat the Romans) wordnet
- 2 of or relating to or containing a metrical foot of two unstressed syllables wordnet
- 3 of or relating to a war dance of ancient Greece wordnet
Example
More examples"Huwawa is slain; the victors triumph, but the victory is to be a pyrrhic one for Gilgamesh, for the gods have met in counsel and decreed that Enkidu should die."
Etymology
From Latin pyrrhichius, from Ancient Greek πυρρίχιος (purrhíkhios), from πυρρίχη (purrhíkhē, “war dance”).
From Pyrrhus (318-272 BC), a king of Epirus whose forces sustained heavy losses in defeating the Romans + -ic.
Related phrases
More for "pyrrhic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.