Aristophanes

American  

[ar-uh-stof-uh-neez] / ˌær əˈstɒf əˌniz /

noun

1. 448?–385? b.c., Athenian comic dramatist.

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Aristophanes British  

/ ˌærɪˈstɒfəˌniːz /

noun

1. ?448–?380 _bc , Greek comic dramatist, who satirized leading contemporary figures such as Socrates and Euripides. Eleven of his plays are extant, including The Clouds, The Frogs, The Birds, and Lysistrata

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Aristophanes Cultural  

1. An ancient Greek dramatist, the author of such comedies as The Clouds and Lysistrata.

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Other Word Forms

• Aristophanic adjective

Example Sentences

Aristophanes, an accomplished Athenian playwright, won several dramatic competitions of his day.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

The show, based on the Aristophanes comedy, originally had been done 20 years earlier in the Yale University swimming pool.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 26, 2021

That’s what Aristophanes and the Greek playwrights did.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 16, 2021

The most famous work by Aristophanes is “The Frogs,” whose plot centers on a competition between the dead poets Euripides and Aeschylus over whose tragic plays are more inspiring for Athenians.

From Washington Post • Jul. 4, 2021

In his comic play The Clouds, Aristophanes, writing in 420 bc, lampooned rhetoric as the art of weak reasoning, “which by false arguments triumphs over the strong.”

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith