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
- 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.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
They are the occupants of the outsize bunk bed at the center of Sabine Dargent’s set, shrouded in Stygian shadows by Mark Galione’s lighting.
From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2019
There, Levi conjured a Stygian exoplanet of glissandos and microtones and processed percussive sounds, evoking the truly alien better than the most lavish special effects ever could have done.
From The New Yorker • Feb. 23, 2017
For the next 90 minutes, we traveled the Stygian depths separately, our frantic text messages to each other getting through only when our trains briefly surfaced over the East River.
From Washington Post • May 8, 2016
He was roughly the same height as Bob, with elaborate Stygian iron armor, a single diamond blazing in the center of his breastplate.
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.
