Scylla

[ sil-uh ]

/ ˈsɪl ə /

Save This Word!

noun

Modern name Scilla. a rock in the Strait of Messina off the S coast of Italy.

Classical Mythology. a sea nymph who was transformed into a sea monster: later identified with the rock Scylla.Compare Charybdis (def. 2).

QUIZZES

QUIZ YOURSELF ON THE 12 TYPES OF VERB TENSES!

Loosen up your grammar muscles because it’s time to test your knowledge on verb tenses!

Question 1 of 6

The verb tenses can be split into which 3 primary categories?

action, linking, and helping

dynamic, static, and auxiliary

past, present, and future

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Meet Grammar Coach

Write or paste your essay, email, or story into Grammar Coach and get grammar help

Improve Your Writing

Meet Grammar Coach

Improve Your Writing

Idioms for Scylla

between Scylla and Charybdis, between two equally perilous alternatives, neither of which can be passed without encountering and probably falling victim to the other.

Words nearby Scylla

scutwork, scuzz, scuzzy, scybalous, scybalum, Scylla, Scylla and Charybdis, scyphate, scyphi-, scyphiform, scyphistoma

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use Scylla in a sentence

“Bernanke was actually an exception,” says Richard Scylla, the eminent New York University financial historian.
Larry Summers’s Connection to Wall Street Should Surprise No One|Daniel Gross|September 13, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Meanwhile many ordinary Egyptians will find themselves back at square one, caught between Scylla and Charybdis.
Thy Hand, Great Anarch!|Hussein Ibish|August 14, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Yes; and rather easy in avoiding Scylla to fall into Charybdis.
The Opened Shutters|Clara Louise Burnham
But escaping Scylla she fell into Charybdis; her uncanny practices came to the ears of the authorities, and she was apprehended.
Irish Witchcraft and Demonology|St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt) Seymour

It is the part of fools to fall upon Scylla in striving to avoid Charybdis.
Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume II (of 2)|Lady Anne Hamilton
The ancients would have represented it as a sea-monster with open jaws, more terrible than Scylla and Charybdis.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864|Various
The channel remains to-day just as it ever did, with Scylla and Charybdis presiding over their rocks as of old.
Andrew Marvell|Augustine Birrell

British Dictionary definitions for Scylla

Scylla

/ (ˈsɪlə) /

noun

Greek myth a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster believed to drown sailors navigating the Strait of Messina. She was identified with a rock off the Italian coastCompare Charybdis

between Scylla and Charybdis in a predicament in which avoidance of either of two dangers means exposure to the other

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with Scylla

Scylla

see between a rock and a hard place (Scylla and Charybdis).