Stygian
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the river Styx or to Hades.
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dark or gloomy.
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infernal; hellish.
adjective
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of or relating to the river Styx
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literary
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dark, gloomy, or hellish
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completely inviolable, as a vow sworn by the river Styx
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of Stygian
1560–70; < Latin Stygi ( us ) < Greek Stýgios ( Styg-, stem of Stýx Styx + -ios adj. suffix) + -an
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A subtle reference to Serra’s father, a pipe fitter at a shipyard near San Francisco, it also puts us in mind of Charon’s ferry, shuttling souls across Stygian waters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
Roger Allam’s pungently played Roy Jenkins is heard pontificating on “the Stygian gloom” of Brussels, though his Continental discontent doesn’t keep him from knocking back the Château Lafite.
From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2017
The pictures – dramatic, intense, Stygian and insistently putting the Bible into the here and now – were like nothing seen before and their effect was instantaneous.
From The Guardian • Oct. 7, 2016
For the next 90 minutes, we traveled the Stygian depths separately, our frantic text messages to each other getting through only when our trains briefly surfaced over the East River.
From Washington Post • May 8, 2016
Nico drew his sword—three feet of wicked sharp Stygian iron, black as a nightmare.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
