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Thanatos

[ than-uh-tos, -tohs ]

noun

  1. an ancient Greek personification of death.
  2. Psychoanalysis. (usually lowercase) the death instinct, especially as expressed in violent aggression.


Thanatos

/ ˌθænəˈtɒtɪk; ˈθænəˌtɒs /

noun

  1. the Greek personification of death: son of Nyx, goddess of night Roman counterpartMors
  2. the name chosen by Freud to represent a universal death instinct Compare Eros
“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
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Derived Forms

  • Thanatotic, adjective
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Other Words From

  • Than·a·tot·ic [than-, uh, -, tot, -ik], adjective
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Example Sentences

Her dad’s servant Thanatos, god of death, had suggested that Pluto might be doing Hazel a favor by ignoring her.

But slowly we are being vaccinated, we are being freed; and soon Thanatos and Eros may not be so scarily intertwined.

He was King of the Dead—not Death himself, whom the Greeks called Thanatos and the Romans, Orcus.

Sitting cross-legged in my friend’s attic, I tore through those pages, ricocheting between Thanatos and Eros.

Forbidden or disaster-laden touch has been thematically explored from the beginning of storytelling: think the apple of Eden, King Midas, Apollo and Daphne, Tantalus, Pygmalion and Thanatos myths, where touching can have calamitous consequences.

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