Stygian
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the river Styx or to Hades.
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dark or gloomy.
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infernal; hellish.
adjective
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of or relating to the river Styx
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literary
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dark, gloomy, or hellish
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completely inviolable, as a vow sworn by the river Styx
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
He parked next to a dimly lit footbridge, which wobbled with our passage above a Stygian chasm.
From Washington Post • Apr. 22, 2022
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 • May 7, 2021
The same is true of the second episode, “Fifteen Million Merits,” a Stygian tale of an immersively “gamified” society in which young lovers see a televised singing competition as their only possibility for escape.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 29, 2014
A sword appeared in the giant’s hand—a Stygian iron blade much like Nico’s, except five times the size.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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.
