Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

Thersites

American  
[ther-sahy-teez] / θərˈsaɪ tiz /

noun

  1. (in theIliad ) a Greek who accused Agamemnon of greed and Achilles of cowardice during the Trojan War.


Thersites British  
/ θəˈsaɪtiːz /

noun

  1. the ugliest and most evil-tongued fighter on the Greek side in the Trojan War, killed by Achilles when he mocked him

"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

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:

Impossible to imagine Lear’s Fool succeeding him or Thersites commanding the Greek army.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2017

“I’ll go look on,” Thersites proclaims, the play’s only explanation for his continuing presence at its margins.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 9, 2016

In Troilus and Cressida, the strangely comic character Thersites announces Ajax by saying “for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.”

From Time ● Sep. 20, 2013

In 1981 Jonathan Miller let him loose on the role of Thersites in his Troilus and Cressida for the BBC.

From The Guardian ● May 28, 2010

Thersites—Shakspeare's Thersites—for Homer's was another Thersites quite—finely called by Coleridge, "the Caliban of demagogic life"—loses all individuality, and is but a brutal buffoon grossly caricatured.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845 by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com