What does "sisyphean" mean?

Incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile.

How do you pronounce "sisyphean"?

Pronounced //ˌsɪsəˈfiːən//.

Sisyphean

Q: What is a synonym for "sisyphean"?

Common synonyms include: effortful, herd cats, like painting forth bridge, like painting the forth bridge.

//ˌsɪsəˈfiːən// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile. not-comparable
"Sisyphean task"
2
Alternative form of Sisyphean. alt-of, alternative, not-comparable
3
Relating to Sisyphus. Greek, not-comparable

Adjective

1
both extremely effortful and futile wordnet
2
of or relating to Sisyphus wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

effortful herd cats like painting forth bridge like painting the forth bridge

Example

More examples

"Translating sentences at Tatoeba sometimes seems like Sisyphean labor."

Etymology

From Sisyphus + -ean, from Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). Sisyphus was a Greek mythical figure who was doomed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, only to have it roll back down again.

Related phrases

Sisyphean labour

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