What does "thyrsus" mean?

A staff topped with a conical ornament, carried by Bacchus or his followers.

What is a synonym for "thyrsus"?

Common synonyms include: thyrse, thyrse.

//ˈθɜɹsəs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A staff topped with a conical ornament, carried by Bacchus or his followers.
"1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poet's Calendar In my hand I bear / The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine."
2
a dense flower cluster (as of the lilac or horse chestnut) in which the main axis is racemose and the branches are cymose wordnet
3
A species of inflorescence; a dense panicle, as in the lilac and horse-chestnut.

"1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poet's Calendar In my hand I bear / The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine."

Learned borrowing from Latin thyrsus, from Ancient Greek θύρσος (thúrsos). Doublet of thyrse, torse, and torso.

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