Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

Tartarus

American  
[tahr-ter-uhs] / ˈtɑr tər əs /

noun

Classical Mythology.
  1. a sunless abyss, below Hades, in which Zeus imprisoned the Titans.

  2. a place in Hades for the punishment of the wicked.


Tartarus British  
/ ˈtɑːtərəs /

noun

  1. an abyss under Hades where the Titans were imprisoned

  2. a part of Hades reserved for evildoers

  3. the underworld; Hades

  4. a primordial god who became the father of the monster Typhon

"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

Etymology

Origin of Tartarus

C16: from Latin, from Greek Tartaros, of obscure origin

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.

See Examples For:

Exoplanet hunters have caught sight of a multitude of Earth- and Venus-size worlds far from our galactic backwater, each of them an Elysium or a Tartarus.

From Scientific American Jun. 2, 2021

Both these handsome volumes — from Tartarus Press — are suffused with that air of mystery, transgression and foreboding one associates with continental literature and film during the 1920s and ’30s.

From Washington Post Aug. 14, 2019

Wormwood, edited by Mark Valentine and published by Tartarus Press, is devoted to “Literature of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent.”

From Washington Post Feb. 20, 2018

The rounded mountains, quite different from those we know on Earth, are named Tartarus Dorsa.

From Textbooks Oct. 13, 2016

You might as well try to kill the earth, Tartarus had said.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training