naiad
Americannoun
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(sometimes initial capital letter) any of a class of nymphs presiding over rivers and springs.
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the juvenile form of the dragonfly, damselfly, or mayfly.
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a female swimmer, especially an expert one.
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Botany. a plant of the genus Najas, having narrow leaves and solitary flowers.
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Entomology. an aquatic nymph.
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a freshwater mussel.
noun
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Greek myth a nymph dwelling in a lake, river, spring, or fountain
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the aquatic larva of the dragonfly, mayfly, and related insects
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Also called: water nymph. any monocotyledonous submerged aquatic plant of the genus Naias (or Najas ), having narrow leaves and small flowers: family Naiadaceae (or Najadaceae )
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any of certain freshwater mussels of the genus Unio See mussel
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of naiad
< Latin Nāïad- (stem of Nāïas ) < Greek Nāïás a water nymph
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.
See Examples For:
And now, as played with fierce physicality and grueling commitment by Annette Bening, Diana is a movie character: an impossible person who achieved the impossible, a naiad whose truer mythological counterpart might be Narcissus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
I’d forgotten Cyane, the naiad, who rises from the river to beg Pluto not to take Proserpine.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
Minthe was a naiad, a water nymph stationed at a tributary to one the better rivers of hell.
From Slate ● May 4, 2012
Leighton set his youthful figure — a classical nymph or naiad — in a Mediterranean setting.
From Washington Post
“He said the guy had an obsession with naiads. What’s a naiad, anyhow?”
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
In the chalk, marine plants and naiades predominate.
From COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 by Humboldt, Alexander von
To my relief, the directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, working with the screenwriter Julia Cox, trace Diana’s mythic roots not just to the naiads, but to zealots like Captain Ahab.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
In “Alas, the Nymphs… ,” the latest installment in the “Men Go Down” trilogy by John Jahnke and his company, Hotel Savant, the naiads are in modern-day Turkey, re-enacting a vengeful memory from ancient Greece.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2015
Behind each lollops a flowing train of antic naiads and tough river gods.
From Time Magazine Archive
The major disappointments were a lackluster performance by Amy Shuard, as the tempestuous Cassandra, and the Royal Hunt scene, in which the dancers thundered about the stage like a herd of Cyclopes rather than naiads.
From Time Magazine Archive
The naiads had not given up—they were trying a different strategy!
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
