Myth

English

Noun

Myth (plural Myths)

1. A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
2. (uncountable) such stories as a genre
3. A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
4. A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend

Adjectives for Myth

nature; heroic; solar; ancient; aboriginal; domestic.

Verbs for Myth

blast—; conceive—; dispel—; dissipate—; eradicate—; explode—; give rise to—; narrate—; preserve—; shatter—; strangle—; trace—; —antedates; —deals with; —develops; —evolves from; —explains; —grows; —portrays; —reflects; —relates; —reverberates; —survives; —wanes.

Thesaurus

tall tale, thick-coming fancies, thriller, tradition, traditionalism, traditionality, trip, untruth, vapor, vision, whim, whimsy, whodunit, whopper, wildest dreams, work of fiction, Marchen, Mishnah, Spiritus Mundi, Sunna, Talmud, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allegory, ancient wisdom, apologue, apparition, archetypal myth, archetypal pattern, bedtime story, brainchild, bubble, canard, chimera, cock-and-bull story, common law, concoction, creation, custom, delirium, detective story, eidolon, epic, extravaganza, fable, fabliau, fabrication, fairy tale, falsehood, fancy, fantasque, fantasy, fib, fiction, figment, folk motif, folk story, folklore, folktale, forgery, gest, ghost story, hallucination, history, horse opera, idle fancy, illusion, imagery, imagination, imagining, immemorial usage, insubstantial image, invention, legend, lie, lore, love story, maggot, make-believe, mystery, mystery story, mythology, mythos, nursery tale, parable, phantasm, phantom, prevarication, racial memory, romance, saga, science fiction, shocker, sick fancy, space fiction, space opera, story, suspense story,

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μῦθος (muthos moo'-thos, “word, humour, companion, speech, account, rumour, fable”). English since 1830.

Pronunciation

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• Rhymes: -ɪθ

Related terms

• mythic
• mythical
• mythicize
• mythologem
• mythological
• mythology
• mythopoeia
• mythopoeic
• mythopoesis
• mythos
• pseudomyth

See also

• legend

Translations

story

Afrikaans: mite (af) Arabic: اسطورة (ar) (Ustuura) f. Catalan: mite (ca) m., mites (ca) pl. Croatian: mȋt (hr) m. Czech: mýtus (cs) m. Dutch: mythe f. and m. Finnish: myytti (fi), kertomus (fi) French: mythe (fr) German: Mythos (de) m. Greek: μύθος (el) (mýthos) m. Ancient: μῦθος m. Hebrew: מיתוס (he) Hungarian: rege (hu)

Icelandic: saga f., uppspuni m. Irish: miotas (ga) m. Japanese: 神話 (しんわ, shinwa) Lithuanian: mitas (lt) m. Norwegian: myte m. Polish: mit (pl) m. Portuguese: mito (pt) Romanian: mit (ro) n., legendă (ro) f. Russian: миф (mif) m. Scottish Gaelic: fionnsgeul (gd) m. Sotho: tshomo (st) Spanish: mito (es) m. Swedish: myt (sv) c. Turkish: mit (tr), söylence (tr), efsane (tr)

common belief

Croatian: mȋt (hr) m. Dutch: mythe f. and m. Finnish: myytti (fi), uskomus (fi) German: Mythos (de) m. Greek: μύθος (el) (mýthos) m. Icelandic: skröksaga f.

Japanese: 伝説 (でんせつ, densetsu) Lithuanian: mitas (lt) m. Norwegian: myte m. Portuguese: mito (pt) Russian: миф (mif) m. Swedish: myt (sv) c.

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Welsh

Noun

myth

1. byth nasally mutated.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
byth	fyth	myth	unchanged