Eros

American  

[eer-os, er-os] / ˈɪər ɒs, ˈɛr ɒs /

noun

• Erotes
  plural

1. the ancient Greek god of love, identified by the Romans with Cupid.

2. a representation of this god.

3. a winged figure of a child representing love or the power of love.

4. (sometimes lowercase) physical love; sexual desire.

5. Astronomy. an asteroid that approaches to within 14 million miles (22.5 million km) of the earth once every 44 years.

6. Psychiatry.

   1. the libido.

   2. instincts for self-preservation collectively.

---

Eros British  

/ ˈɛrɒs, ˈɪərɒs /

noun

1. Roman counterpart: Cupid. Greek myth the god of love, son of Aphrodite

2. Also called: life instinct. (in Freudian theory) the group of instincts, esp sexual, that govern acts of self-preservation and that tend towards uninhibited enjoyment of life Compare Thanatos

---

Eros Cultural  

1. A Greek and Roman god of love, often called the son of Aphrodite. He is better known by his Roman name.

---

Discover More

The word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, which is the term for sexual love itself, as well as the god's name.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Erotes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Eros

Greek: desire, sexual love

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Eros Erotes

I’m referring to Eros Brousson, the bearded, tattooed Frenchman who recently became TikTok famous by posting a series of monologues revealing an uncanny understanding of modern women.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2025

Eros agrees, although he says the building and facilities also mattered.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024

The burning question facing America is: Will the other basic drive, which Freud called Eros and Harris and Walz call joy, provide us with an alternative?

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2024

But “Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974,” an eyebrow-raising exercise in oversharing that Hara made the previous decade, warrants a look of its own.

From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024

The an-cients would have explained what Desdemona was feeling as the workings of Eros.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

They both numbered among the Erotes, the ancient Greeks' Gods of Love, but Anteros was a very specific god.

From Nature ● Jan. 16, 2013

The dialogue, entitled Erotes, attributed to Lucian, deserves a paragraph.

From A Problem in Greek Ethics Being an inquiry into the phenomenon of sexual inversion by John Addington Symonds