Adonis

American  

[uh-don-is, uh-doh-nis] / əˈdɒn ɪs, əˈdoʊ nɪs /

noun

• Adonises
  plural

1. Classical Mythology. a youth slain by a wild boar but permitted by Zeus to pass four months every year in the lower world with Persephone, four with Aphrodite, and four wherever he chose.

2. a very handsome young man.

---

Adonis British  

/ əˈdəʊnɪs /

noun

1. Greek myth a handsome youth loved by Aphrodite. Killed by a wild boar, he was believed to spend part of the year in the underworld and part on earth, symbolizing the vegetative cycle

2. a handsome young man

---

Adonis Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, an extremely beautiful boy who was loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

---

Discover More

By extension, an “Adonis” is any handsome young man.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Adonises
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of Adonis

1615–25 Adonis for def. 2

---

Explanation

An adonis is a very handsome man, especially a young one. You might secretly think of your good-looking neighbor as "a young adonis." You'll most commonly see this word capitalized: Adonis, though if you're using it to mean "handsome guy," it's okay to use a lower-case a. Its origin is the god Adonis, in Greek mythology the eternally youthful god of beauty and desire. When you call someone an adonis, there's an implication that he's a bit vain about his good looks: "He knows he's the adonis of the family."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Adonis Adonises

Until the 1990s, that is, when relentless tabloid coverage reinvented him as New York City’s Adonis.

From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026

For now, though, Mr. Skarsgård has embraced the obvious fact that he is an Adonis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

Health minister Adonis Georgiadis earlier told the Skai news agency that six workers and a firefighter had been taken to hospital, adding that they were "in good health, mainly suffering from respiratory problems".

From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026

In between Coogler projects, Jordan starred in “Just Mercy” as real-life death row attorney Bryan Stevenson and directed “Creed III,” reprising his role as Adonis “Donnie” Creed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

He was a strong and gifted athlete, charming, smart, and immensely good-looking–"handsome almost to a fault," in the description of William H. Cropper, "an Adonis" in the words of another admirer.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The matchbooks on display at the library, nostalgic artifacts adorned with images of muscled Adonises and punning slogans, were everyday objects — used and discarded — at the time they were made.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2019

A stark difference between me and the zero-body-fat Adonises.

From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2016

When a trend is embraced by both the baby-oiled Adonises of luxury fashion and the ruling-class matrons of the Old World, you know somebody’s doing something wrong.

From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2010

In this alternate universe, the gods are bronzed-faced Adonises and everyone bleeds yellow and green.

From Washington Post

Ah, my dear Madam, kings and queens may be backed like a whale or humped like a camel, but down goes the world on its marrow-bones, and worships them for Venuses and Adonises.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• vision

---