Demeter

American  

[dih-mee-ter] / dɪˈmi tər /

noun

1. the ancient Greek chthonian goddess of agriculture and the protector of marriage and the social order, identified by the Romans with Ceres. She presided over the Eleusinian mysteries.

---

Demeter British  

/ dɪˈmiːtə /

noun

1. Roman counterpart: Ceres.  Greek myth the goddess of agricultural fertility and protector of marriage and women

---

Demeter Cultural  

1. The Greek and Roman goddess of grain, agriculture, and the harvest. The story of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, explains the cycle of the seasons. When Persephone was carried off to the underworld by Hades, Demeter was so forlorn that she did not tend the crops, and the first winter came to the Earth. Eventually Zeus allowed Persephone to rejoin her mother for two-thirds of every year, and thus the cycle of the seasons began.

---

Example Sentences

I was a bit older when I encountered Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which opens in the seaside town of Whitby, where cliffs overlook the sea in which the ill-fated ship Demeter meets its end.

From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026

“Now they are breaking out again, setting up to enter 2026 as leadership,” writes Kevin Demeter, technical analyst at Renaissance Macro Research.

From Barron's • Dec. 5, 2025

From Demeter mourning Persephone to the harvest holidays of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, we’ve always marked time through the land.

From Salon • Oct. 7, 2025

And that’s why we have winter: it’s cold and dark for six months because Demeter, who is the goddess of the earth, is in mourning.

From Scientific American • Sep. 28, 2023

So Demeter nursed Demophoön, the son that Metaneira had borne to wise Celeus.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton