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  • Cyclops
    Cyclops
    noun
    a member of a family of giants having a single round eye in the middle of the forehead.
  • cyclops
    cyclops
    noun
    any copepod of the genus Cyclops, characterized by having one eye
Synonyms

Cyclops

American  
[sahy-klops] / ˈsaɪ klɒps /

noun

  • Cyclopes
    plural
  1. Classical Mythology. a member of a family of giants having a single round eye in the middle of the forehead.

  2. (lowercase) a freshwater copepod of the genus Cyclops, having a median eye in the front of the head.


cyclops 1 British  
/ ˈsaɪklɒps /

noun

  1. any copepod of the genus Cyclops, characterized by having one eye

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cyclops 2 British  
/ ˈsaɪklɒps /

noun

  1. classical myth one of a race of giants having a single eye in the middle of the forehead, encountered by Odysseus in the Odyssey See also Polyphemus

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cyclops Cultural  
  1. plur. Cyclopes One-eyed giants in classical mythology. One Cyclops imprisoned Odysseus and his men during their voyage back to Greece after the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). Odysseus managed to trick the Cyclops and put out his eye. Odysseus and his men were then able to escape.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of Cyclops

< Greek Kýklōps, literally, round-eye, equivalent to kýkl ( os ) a circle, round + ṓps eye


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.

See Examples For:

But the Cyclops is one-eyed, slow-moving and tactically naive, like the English national team, and is eventually defeated by firm managerial leadership and guile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Nolan’s non-CGI visions of the Trojan Horse, the Cyclops, the sacking of Troy, the transformation of men into pigs do not require an “ultimate” aspect ratio to be remarkable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

It recounts the titular hero's 10-year quest to return home from war and includes some of the most famous Ancient Greek myths, including one-eyed monster Cyclops and the Sirens.

From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026

“For some, a war becomes home,” he says at one point, his line readings so pungent you’ll barely miss the excitement of a Cyclops or a Calypso.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2024

At least Tyson brought some of his Cyclops friends to help out,’ Rachel said.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

According to the show's curators, elements of Flaxman's sketches can be seen in Turner's painting called Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus – Homer's Odyssey, including outlines of horses in the sunset and the shadow of a cyclops.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Damon’s Odysseus captures all the heroic arrogance, bravery and selfish stupidity of an action-flick brawler who would shoot a giant cyclops in the eye as he’s making his escape, just because.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026

Its fantastical elements, from the ambush on Troy led by Matt Damon’s Odysseus to a giant cyclops that gobbles his men in a cave, were created primarily with physical effects for a more visceral impact.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

New research suggests that far back in evolutionary history, one of our earliest relatives had a single eye, much like a tiny cyclops, positioned on top of its head.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 27, 2026

Next to it is a very bored-looking cyclops; it glances down at its ticket and rolls its large, bulging eye.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

Homer’s “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus, a Greek king trying to get home after the Trojan War, a journey interrupted by Cyclopes, sirens, shipwrecks and gods with grudges.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026

For the Greeks, the Black Sea was the edge of the known world, inhabited by, as he writes in the book, “cannibals, hellhounds, man-slaughtering Amazons, dwarves mounted on flying cranes, Cyclopes, lice-eaters, and werewolves.”

From Washington Post ● Jul. 29, 2022

For Halloween that year, the Latin pop star J Balvin gave a campy concert dressed as a green-haired Frankenstein’s monster, backed by dancers in costume as ghosts and zombie Cyclopes.

From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2022

It is strange that Knausgaard, given his thematic fixations, fails to mention that the Cyclopes were, in Greek mythology, wall builders, responsible for constructing fortifications on the Peloponnese.

From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2020

He was the last of his kind—a Hundred- Handed One, cousin of the Cyclopes.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

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