apollo means the son of Zeus and Leto (or Jupiter and Latona), and the twin brother of Artemis (or Diana). He was the god of light, music, medicine, and poetry; and prophecy, dance, manly beauty, and more. It carries an Arena rating of 1606, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apollo ranks #676 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #859 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,802 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,225 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
apollo is pronounced /əˈpɒləʊ/.
Why “apollo” is a great word
A classical deity governing prophecy, music, healing, and the sun, whose image came to signify ideal male beauty and lend its name to a spacecraft, a butterfly, and countless mortal paragons. From Latin Apollō, from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn); the ultimate etymology is obscure, with later Greek folk etymology associating it with ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi, 'to destroy'). Unlike Hermes, the mercurial messenger of commerce and cunning, or Adonis, a passive emblem of tragic desire, Apollo represents the active, intellectual principle of light that banishes chaos. He is the precise geometry of a sunbeam cutting temple smoke, the severe clarity of a lyre’s chord resolving dissonance, and the cold, diagnostic gaze of a healer who understands the disease perfectly—the divine aspiration for a world governed by reason, perpetually shadowed by the very passions his light reveals.
Etymology
From Latin Apollō, from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn).
name
- The son of Zeus and Leto (or Jupiter and Latona), and the twin brother of Artemis (or Diana). He was the god of light, music, medicine, and poetry; and prophecy, dance, manly beauty, and more.
- The planet Mercury, when observed as a Morning Star.
- A United States space program, and the vehicles it created, used for human travel to the moon.e.g.“Apollo 11 landed people on the moon for the first time.”
- Apollo Theatre, a music hall in New York City associated with African-American performers.
- A male given name.
- A placename.
noun
- Any of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo).
- A very handsome young man.
- Acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis.e.g.“After that, children in school said you could get Apollo, a form of conjunctivitis, by staring at an eclipse too long.” — 2005, Sefi Atta, Everything Good Will Come, Arris Books, page 11:
- An asteroid possessing an orbit that crosses the orbit of the Earth and an orbital period of over one year, with semimajor axes greater than 1 AU, and perihelion distances less than 1.017 AU.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- papilio 70% match — Any butterfly of the genus Papilio. vs apollo →
- apolline 64% match — Of or relating to the god Apollo. vs apollo →
- papilionaceous 58% match — Pertaining to a butterfly or butterflies. vs apollo →
- apalis 58% match — Any of several species of birds in the genus Apalis. vs apollo →
- apefly 58% match — A small lycaenid butterfly native to South- and Southeast Asia, Spalgis epius, whose pupa is said to look like a monkey's face. vs apollo →
- turnus 57% match — Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail, a butterfly of eastern North America. vs apollo →
- birdwing 57% match — Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genera Troides and Ornithoptera. vs apollo →
- mapwing 56% match — Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Cyrestis, of Africa, Asia, and Australasia, having map-like marking on the wings. vs apollo →