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• hero
  hero

  noun

  a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character.
• Hero
  Hero

  noun

  a priestess of Aphrodite who drowned herself after her lover Leander drowned while swimming the Hellespont to visit her.

Trivia Time

Hero is derived from the ancient Greek word hērōs. What does hērōs mean?

Test Your Knowledge

hero

¹ American  

[heer-oh] / ˈhɪər oʊ /

noun

• heroes,
  plural
• heros
  plural

1. a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character.

   He became a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has special achievements, abilities, or personal qualities and is regarded as a role model or ideal.

   My older sister is my hero.

   Entrepreneurs are our modern heroes.

3. an animal acknowledged for its courageous acts, devotion to duty, etc..

   This police dog hero was shot during the apprehension of a suspect.

4. the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.

   Synonyms:

   star, lead

   Antonyms:

   heavy, villain

5. Classical Mythology.

   1. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.

   2. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.

   3. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

6. hero sandwich.

7. the bread or roll used in making a hero sandwich.

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adjective

1. being or relating to a person or animal noted for special achievements, abilities, or personal qualities, especially bravery or devotion to duty; heroic.

   A hero cat helped a firefighter spot a small child in a burning building.

2. (in advertising and marketing) especially notable, important, or central.

   Producing new hero content twice a year can help your brand grow.

   Your hero product should be obvious on your website.

verb (used with object)

1. to praise or treat as special; laud.

   We hero the moms who were writing parenting guides and giving advice to new mothers.

   Over the years, the judging panel has rightly heroed brands championing equal rights.

2. to bring to attention; highlight.

   These dishes beautifully hero the fresh organic ginger.

Hero ² American  

[heer-oh] / ˈhɪər oʊ /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. a priestess of Aphrodite who drowned herself after her lover Leander drowned while swimming the Hellespont to visit her.

2. Also Heron Hero of Alexandria, flourished 1st century a.d., Greek scientist.

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hero ¹ British  

/ ˈhɪərəʊ /

noun

1. a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc

2. a man who is idealized for possessing superior qualities in any field

3. classical myth a being of extraordinary strength and courage, often the offspring of a mortal and a god, who is celebrated for his exploits

4. the principal male character in a novel, play, etc

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Hero ² British  

/ ˈhɪərəʊ /

noun

1. Greek myth a priestess of Aphrodite, who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while swimming the Hellespont to visit her

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Hero ³ British  

/ ˈhɪərəʊ /

noun

1. 1st century _ad , Greek mathematician and inventor

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Hero Scientific  

/ hē′rō /

1. Greek mathematician who wrote on mechanics and invented many water-driven and steam-driven machines. He also developed a formula for determining the area of a triangle.

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Usage

Plural word for hero The plural form of the noun hero is heroes. The plurals of other singular words that end in -o are also formed in this way, including potato/potatoes, tomato/tomatoes, and echo/echoes. This can be confusing, because in some instances, words that end in -o are pluralized by simply adding an -s to the end, as in mango/mangos and flamingo/flamingos. However, the plural form heros is only valid when hero is used in the sense of a “hero sandwich.” This usage is very rare.

Gender

In its earliest use, the word hero was applied almost exclusively to a man. The corresponding word heroine was–and still is–reserved for a woman. Hero is still sometimes used to refer specifically to a man: British heroes and heroines. But hero is now considered to be a gender-neutral word, and is also increasingly used to refer to a woman: a list of American heroes; Joan of Arc, a French hero. In the sense "the principal character in a story, play, etc.," a hero is male and a heroine is female: Margaret is the novel’s heroine.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subhero
  noun
• unhero
  noun
• herolike
  adjective
• unherolike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• heroes
  plural
• heros
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hero

First recorded in 1605–15; back formation from Middle English heroes (plural), from Latin hērōs (singular), hērōes (plural), from Greek hḗrōs, hḗrōes

Explanation

Yes, a hero is a kind of sandwich. But when David Bowie sings, “We can be heroes,” he’s not talking about sandwiches. He’s talking about the more popular kind of hero — the kind who saves your life! A hero is someone who does fantastic things that people love. The guy who rescues a skater from a frozen pond is a hero. A hero can be the main character of a story, too, if people root for him. Spiderman is the hero of the comic series: he's the central character, but he also saves people. The word hero goes back to the Greek, referring to a demigod.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hero Hero heroes heros

One hero that day was Rick Rescorla, head of security for Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Nor can Antigone, whose all-consuming identification with her cause renders her indifferent to other obligations, be adopted as a user-friendly hero.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

And Ted, our folksy hero, is showing real growth.

From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2026

It's a story that has long featured the New York property tycoon as the hero, with variations on him taking workers down to Ground Zero.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

The hero, Captain Burin, was writing home from the battlefield to the one he had waltzed with in the first chapter, the one he loved.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

Some carried flags or wore T-shirts featuring Mladic in uniform with the caption, "Serbian Hero".

From Barron's ● Sep. 5, 2026

The investor is to sell its remaining stake in Delivery Hero to Uber as part of the planned tie-up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Back then, its Hero 3+ Black Edition camera was driving sales.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

And speaking of dogs, the family has Shields’ golden retriever, a Rottweiler named Fancy, a giant schnauzer named Goose and two Belgian Malinois named Hero and Baymax.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

“Jhogo is the queen’s bloodrider, blood of her blood. They came out of the Red Waste together. Hero is Grey Worm’s second-in-command. And Daario...”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

Local heroes Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were unable to give the Spanish fans much to cheer about as both were knocked out after the first session in 17th and 18th places.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

“I was using Riefenstahl to point out, or so I thought, that these heroes and heroines were straight out of Nazi propaganda,” Verhoeven told The Guardian in 2018.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

To commemorate the event, one of its greatest heroes, Maj.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

“The heroes, the poetics, the material culture, the everyday,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

"Oh, you have heroes in this day and age? Pray, name one."

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda

To mix it up, leftovers can easily be made into meatball heros.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2021

I’m sure the jobless, teachers, medical heros and first responders can sleep well tonight knowing these two gentlemen can survive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2020

It is completely self-serving for the author to portray himself or herself, along with fellow resistors, as heros.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 7, 2018

Sarah Weddington needs to be on this list of heros.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2017

This was exactly as heros spoke in novels; they always had a lofty contempt for money, and talked as though love was the only and universal good.

From Marion Arleigh's Penance Everyday Life Library No. 5 by Charlotte M. Brame

Related Words

• eidolon
• example
• exemplar
• good example
• icon
• ideal
• idol
• model
• paragon
• person to look up to
• role model
• shining example