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• labyrinth
  labyrinth

  noun

  an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.
• Labyrinth
  Labyrinth

  noun

  Greek myth a huge maze constructed for King Minos in Crete by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur

labyrinth

American  

[lab-uh-rinth] / ˈlæb ə rɪnθ /

noun

• labyrinths
  plural

1. an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.

   Synonyms:

   web, network, maze

2. a maze of paths bordered by high hedges, as in a park or garden, for the amusement of those who search for a way out.

3. a complicated or tortuous arrangement, as of streets or buildings.

   Synonyms:

   knot, tangle, snarl, jungle, maze, warren

4. any confusingly intricate state of things or events; a bewildering complex.

   His papers were lost in an hellish bureaucratic labyrinth.

   After the death of her daughter, she wandered in a labyrinth of sorrow for what seemed like a decade.

   Synonyms:

   morass, forest, jungle, wilderness

5. Classical Mythology. Labyrinth. a vast maze built in Crete by Daedalus, at the command of King Minos, to house the Minotaur.

6. Anatomy.

   1. the internal ear, consisting of a bony portion bony labyrinth and a membranous portion membranous labyrinth.

   2. the aggregate of air chambers in the ethmoid bone, between the eye and the upper part of the nose.

7. a mazelike pattern inlaid in the pavement of a church.

8. Also called acoustic labyrinth;, acoustical labyrinth. Audio. a loudspeaker enclosure with air chambers at the rear for absorbing sound waves radiating in one direction so as to prevent their interference with waves radiated in another direction.

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labyrinth ¹ British  

/ ˈlæbərɪnθ /

noun

1. a mazelike network of tunnels, chambers, or paths, either natural or man-made Compare maze

2. any complex or confusing system of streets, passages, etc

3. a complex or intricate situation

4. 1. any system of interconnecting cavities, esp those comprising the internal ear

   2. another name for internal ear

5. electronics an enclosure behind a high-performance loudspeaker, consisting of a series of air chambers designed to absorb unwanted sound waves

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Labyrinth ² British  

/ ˈlæbərɪnθ /

noun

1. Greek myth a huge maze constructed for King Minos in Crete by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur

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labyrinth Scientific  

/ lăb′ə-rĭnth′ /

1. The system of interconnecting canals and spaces that make up the inner ear of many vertebrates. The labyrinth has both a bony component, made up of the cochlea, the semicircular canals, and the vestibule, and a membranous one.

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Labyrinth Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, a vast maze on the island of Crete. The great inventor Daedalus designed it, and the king of Crete kept the Minotaur in it. Very few people ever escaped from the Labyrinth. One was Theseus, the killer of the Minotaur.

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Discover More

A labyrinth can be literally a maze or figuratively any highly intricate construction or problem.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• labyrinths
  plural

Etymology

Origin of labyrinth

First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin labyrinthus, from Greek labýrinthos; replacing earlier laborynt, from Medieval Latin laborintus, Latin, as above

Explanation

A labyrinth is a structure with many connected paths or passages in which it is hard to find your way. In figurative use, a labyrinth is a complicated situation: our tax code is a labyrinth of rules and regulations. In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was the structure built for King Minos of Crete to confine the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. The word maze is a near synonym for labyrinth, and is also used figuratively, as in, "After war broke out, trying to figure out how to get a visa to leave the country was like navigating a maze, a veritable labyrinth of wrong turns and false hope."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

labyrinth Labyrinth labyrinths

The younger man emerges from this labyrinth of court proceedings and outraged amour-propre in the worst possible light.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Chase proves more clever in turning Maya’s harmless couch fort into a claustrophobic labyrinth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

A heavy metal door stood open at the end, but I could not help but feel like it may slam shut and I would be trapped in this labyrinth forever.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

But logic can’t win out — you don’t even remember how you got into this labyrinth to begin with.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026

A turn to the right, a few steps down, right again . . . what an endless labyrinth this prison was.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Philip Simon was due to perform his stand-up show at the Banshee Labyrinth on Niddry Street, but the venue scrapped it at short notice after it carried out "routine" checks on his social media.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro will mark the 20th anniversary of Oscar-winning "Pan's Labyrinth" on Friday.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

In an effort to counter the worst offenders Cloudflare previously developed a system where the worst miscreants would be sent to a "Labyrinth" of web pages filled with AI generated junk.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025

It is easy to miss the sign for Halls Hill Lookout & Labyrinth if you don’t take it slowly on the road and, once you do see it, pull off to the side.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024

“The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed.”

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan

The stations are designed as logical sequences of space, not as labyrinths you wander through.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

With help from an experienced underwater cave-diving team, Northwestern University researchers have constructed the most complete map to date of the microbial communities living in the submerged labyrinths beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2023

The lonely facelessness of the facades evokes the paintings of de Chirico and Hopper; lurking staircases nod to the winding labyrinths of M.C.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2023

In the early days of the pandemic, when even outdoor labyrinths felt risky, Veriditas started offering free, weekly guided finger labyrinth walks on Fridays over Zoom.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023

He heard the voice of the woman created by a marriage that had its own surprises and labyrinths, its own shadows and secret minotaurs.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

Related Words

• tangle