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• Isis
  Isis

  noun

  a goddess of fertility, the sister and wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, and usually represented as a woman with a cow's horns with the solar disk between them: later worshiped in the Greek and Roman empires.
• ISIS
  ISIS

  noun

  Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria): a radical Sunni Muslim organization whose aim is to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the region encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and southeastern Turkey.

Isis

¹ American  

[ahy-sis] / ˈaɪ sɪs /

noun

Egyptian Religion.

1. a goddess of fertility, the sister and wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, and usually represented as a woman with a cow's horns with the solar disk between them: later worshiped in the Greek and Roman empires.

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ISIS ² American  

[ahy-sis] / ˈaɪ sɪs /

noun

1. Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria): a radical Sunni Muslim organization whose aim is to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the region encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and southeastern Turkey.

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Isis ¹ British  

/ ˈaɪsɪs /

noun

1. the local name for the River Thames at Oxford

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Isis ² British  

/ ˈaɪsɪs /

noun

1. an ancient Egyptian fertility goddess, depicted as a woman with a cow's horns, between which was the disc of the sun; wife and sister of Osiris

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Etymology

Origin of Isis¹

< Latin < Greek Îsis < Egyptian 'st

Origin of ISIS²

First recorded in 2010–15; from Arabic al-Sham, an ancient territory known in English as the Levant, an area on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Isis ISIS

Low population levels also make monarchs more vulnerable to short-term stress and long-term pressures, said Isis Howard, a conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026

He broke ties with al Qaeda in 2016 and later fought against Isis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025

Carbona remade BioLife into AveXis: Av for adeno-associated virus serotype 9, the engine of Kaspar’s drug; ve for vector; X for the DNA helix; and Is for Isis, the goddess of children, nature and magic.

From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2025

“Gang rivalries are bitter,” a prison officer at HMP Isis tells us, speaking on condition of anonymity.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2024

April told everyone to wait just inside the fence while she tiptoed forward and lit the cone of incense on the altar of Set and the two candles that stood before the goddess Isis.

From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Less immediate concern about non-state actors and militant groups such as al-Qaeda or ISIS.

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

The US-led coalition "relied on Kurdish forces in Rojava to fight and defeat ISIS", Murad, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work, wrote on X.

From Barron's ● Jan. 20, 2026

I’ll go out on a limb and say whatever those young Saudis at the WWE were thinking, it wasn’t about joining ISIS.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025

Once a radical Islamist with ties to al-Qaida and ISIS, Sharaa broke with jihadist networks in 2016.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2025

Our nearest border crossing is in Mursitpinar, twenty minutes’ drive from Kobani, but Turkey closed down the border there months ago, after the Protection Units took back Kobani from ISIS.

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell