Alexander the Great

American  

noun

1. 356–323 b.c., king of Macedonia 336–323: conqueror of Greek city-states and of the Persian empire from Asia Minor and Egypt to India.

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Alexander the Great British  

noun

1. 356–323 _bc , king of Macedon, who conquered Greece (336), Egypt (331), and the Persian Empire (328), and founded Alexandria

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Alexander the Great Cultural  

1. A ruler of Greece in the fourth century b.c. As a general, he conquered most of the ancient world, extending the civilization of Greece east to India. Alexander is said to have wept because there were no worlds left to conquer. In Alexander's youth, the philosopher Aristotle was his tutor.

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Before beginning his conquests, Alexander allegedly unloosed the Gordian knot by cutting through it. It was believed that the person who unfastened the Gordian knot would rule a vast territory in Asia. Alexander founded the city of Alexandria, which became a great center of learning in Egypt (see also Egypt).

Example Sentences

Figures like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon were adventurers, and while perhaps not personally admirable, they changed history and changed it irrevocably:

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

Alexander the Great, who had died in Babylon in 323 B.C., provided for Agathocles and the age’s other warlords what Ms. MacDonald terms “a new model for power in the ancient world.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026

By 327BC, Alexander the Great had conquered the region and married a Bactrian woman named Roxana, after defeating the Achaemenid ruler.

From BBC • Feb. 21, 2024

The man who would become Alexander the Great was born in July 356 B.C. and inherited the Macedonian throne two decades later.

From National Geographic • Feb. 8, 2024

The city was founded by Alexander the Great and constructed by his former bodyguard.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan