Stygian
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to the river Styx or to Hades.
-
dark or gloomy.
-
infernal; hellish.
adjective
-
of or relating to the river Styx
-
literary
-
dark, gloomy, or hellish
-
completely inviolable, as a vow sworn by the river Styx
-
Other Word Forms
- trans-Stygian adjective
Etymology
Origin of Stygian
1560–70; < Latin Stygi ( us ) < Greek Stýgios ( Styg-, stem of Stýx Styx + -ios adj. suffix) + -an
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.
A subtle reference to Serra’s father, a pipe fitter at a shipyard near San Francisco, it also puts us in mind of Charon’s ferry, shuttling souls across Stygian waters.
Sometimes we come to a fuller reckoning of ourselves through the most Stygian passageways.
From New York Times
He parked next to a dimly lit footbridge, which wobbled with our passage above a Stygian chasm.
From Washington Post
His Stygian iron blade seemed to make the shadows even gloomier, as if the infernal metal was drawing the light and heat out of the air.
From Literature
The actors are shot in separate gloomy interiors, and from stationary positions, so as to appear in Stygian Zoom-like frames as if at a virtual meeting of hobbits.
From New York Times
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.
