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phoenix.

A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfiːnɪks/
  1. A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.

  2. Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.

    figuratively
    Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes.
  3. A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.

    Chinese
  4. A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.

    historical
  5. A marvelous person or thing.

    obsolete
  6. A geometer moth of species Eulithis prunata.

Where this word comes from

From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian b-n:nw*w-G31 (bnw, “grey heron”). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.

verb/ˈfiːnɪks/
  1. To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability

    Australia
Where this word comes from

From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian b-n:nw*w-G31 (bnw, “grey heron”). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.