Thanatos
Americannoun
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an ancient Greek personification of death.
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Psychoanalysis. the death instinct, especially as expressed in violent aggression.
noun
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Roman counterpart: Mors. the Greek personification of death: son of Nyx, goddess of night
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the name chosen by Freud to represent a universal death instinct Compare Eros
Other Word Forms
- Thanatotic adjective
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.
Sitting cross-legged in my friend’s attic, I tore through those pages, ricocheting between Thanatos and Eros.
From Washington Post • May 26, 2020
Forbidden or disaster-laden touch has been thematically explored from the beginning of storytelling: think the apple of Eden, King Midas, Apollo and Daphne, Tantalus, Pygmalion and Thanatos myths, where touching can have calamitous consequences.
From The Guardian • May 22, 2020
The study about Thanatos was published last month in the Cretaceous Research journal.
From BBC • Feb. 11, 2020
Not that that the arrows that staves off Thanatos are it feels like it does.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 30, 2018
“I don’t see you on the list,” Thanatos said.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
