any of certain women of antiquity reputed to possess powers of prophecy or divination.
a female prophet or witch.
(in ancient Greece and Rome) any of a number of women believed to be oracles or prophetesses, one of the most famous being the sibyl of Cumae, who guided Aeneas through the underworld
a witch, fortune-teller, or sorceress
1250–1300; < Greek Síbylla Sibylla; replacing Middle English Sibil < Medieval Latin Sibilla < Greek, as above
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sherman has been the sibyl of such proliferating confusions, toying with representation’s integrity and the boundaries of identity for more than four decades.
From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
It was deemed a line straight to God — staggering, the voice of an enchantress, a sibyl, a siren.
From Washington Post ● May 11, 2021
Since the mid-1980s, Ms. Cook has reigned as a kind of sibyl channeling the wisdom and humanity of the American songbook, particularly as embodied in the work of Stephen Sondheim.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2016
He shows Emperor Octavian asking the Tiburtine sibyl whether any king as great as he would ever live; the sibyl replies by showing the Emperor a vision of the Christ Child.
From Time Magazine Archive
Why did he go to so much trouble when the finished sibyl is mostly clothed and must be viewed from a considerable distance below?
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
The 5-inch drawing depicts the right foot of the Libyan Sibyl, a blonde prophetess wearing a creamsicle gown painted onto the chapel ceiling’s eastern end.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
The small red chalk sketch is thought to date to about 1511-1512 when Michelangelo was preparing to work on the second half of his painting of the Sistine ceiling, which included the Libyan Sibyl.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
The set, by Sibyl Wickersheimer, is a loose scaffold of plastic sheeting, plywood pallets and splintered Sheetrock.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2019
His father, Rupert Victor John Carington, was the 5th Baron Carrington and his mother, Sibyl Colville, was the daughter of the 2nd Viscount Colville.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2018
The way the Sibyl thought it necessary to start was calculated to frighten any but the boldest.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
