ambrosia

[am-broh-zhuh]

noun

1. Classical Mythology.,  the food of the gods.

2. something especially delicious to taste or smell.

3. a fruit dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut and sometimes pineapple.

ambrosia

/ æmˈbrəʊzɪə /

noun

1. classical myth the food of the gods, said to bestow immortality Compare nectar

2. anything particularly delightful to taste or smell

3. another name for beebread

4. any of various herbaceous plants constituting the genus Ambrosia, mostly native to America but widely naturalized: family Asteraceae (composites). The genus includes the ragweeds

ambrosia

1. The food of the gods in classical mythology. Those who ate it became immortal.

Particularly delicious food is sometimes called “ambrosia.”

Other Word Forms

• ambrosial adjective
• ambrosially adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambrosia¹

1545–55; < Latin < Greek: immortality, food of the gods, noun use of feminine of ambrósios, equivalent to a- a- ⁶ + -mbros- (combining form of brotōs mortal; akin to Latin mortuus dead, murder ) + -ios adj. suffix; replacing Middle English ambrose, ambrosie < Old French ambroise < Latin

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambrosia¹

C16: via Latin from Greek: immortality, from ambrotos, from _a- ¹ + brotos mortal