Achilles

American  

[uh-kil-eez] / əˈkɪl iz /

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War and hero of Homer's Iliad. He killed Hector and was killed when Paris wounded him in the heel, his one vulnerable spot, with an arrow.

---

Achilles British  

/ ˌækɪˈliːən, əˈkɪliːz /

noun

1. Greek myth Greek hero, the son of Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis: in the Iliad the foremost of the Greek warriors at the siege of Troy. While he was a baby his mother plunged him into the river Styx making his body invulnerable except for the heel by which she held him. After slaying Hector, he was killed by Paris who wounded him in the heel

---

Achilles Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the greatest warrior on the Greek side in the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). When he was an infant, his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river, but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable. During the Trojan War, he quarreled with the commander, Agamemnon, and in anger sulked in his tent. Eventually Achilles emerged to fight and killed the Trojan hero Hector, but he was wounded in the heel by an arrow and died shortly thereafter.

---

Discover More

Achilles is the hero of Homer's Iliad.

People speak of an “Achilles' heel” as the one weak or sore point in a person's character.

The phrase “wrath of Achilles” refers to the hero's anger, which caused so much destruction that Homer refers to it as his main theme in the first line of the Iliad.

The Achilles tendon runs from the heel to the calf.

Other Word Forms

• Achillean adjective

Example Sentences

Achilles tears are known throughout the NBA as injuries that turn players into shadows of their former selves, demoting an All-Star into a role player and a role player into a retiree.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026

Hugo Ekitike is expected to miss the World Cup after suffering a suspected Achilles injury during Liverpool's Champions League defeat by Paris St-Germain on Tuesday.

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026

He suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon in March 2025 and underwent back surgery last October.

From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026

The 15-time major champion tore his Achilles last March and underwent another back surgery later in the year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

Not only does Achilles take an infinite number of steps to run a finite distance, but he takes only 2 seconds to do it.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife