manticore means A beast with the body of a lion (usually red), the tail of a scorpion, and the head/face of a man with a mouth filled with multiple rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), said to be able to shoot spikes from its tail or mane to paralyse prey. It may be horned, winged, or both; its voice is described as a mixture of pipes and trumpets.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, manticore ranks #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #11,986 of 14,448 for Most Incisive Words.
manticore is pronounced /ˈmæntɪˌkɔɹ/.
Why “manticore” is a great word
A mythical beast with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the head of a man, famed for its man-eating nature. From Latin mantichōras, from Ancient Greek μαρτιχόρας (martikhóras, "man-eater; tiger"), from Old Persian *martyahvārah ("man-eater"), from martiyaʰ ("man") + *khvāra ("eater"). Unlike the sphinx, which guards thresholds and propounds riddles, or the chimera, a fire-breathing amalgam of disparate parts, the manticore is pure predatory appetite given monstrous form. It is the impossible silhouette against a desert dusk—a lion’s muscular haunch, a human face contorted in an inhuman grin, and the venomous, articulate sting poised above the tawny spine. Its form is a perfect, terrible logic, a lesson that some hungers are too profound to be metaphors.
Etymology
From Latin mantichōras, from Ancient Greek μαρτιχόρας (martikhóras, “man-eater; tiger”), from Old Persian *martyahvārah (“man-eater”), from 𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹 (m-r-t-i-y /martyaʰ/, “man”).
noun
- A beast with the body of a lion (usually red), the tail of a scorpion, and the head/face of a man with a mouth filled with multiple rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), said to be able to shoot spikes from its tail or mane to paralyse prey. It may be horned, winged, or both; its voice is described as a mixture of pipes and trumpets.“Now may I present to you the basilisk?
Please down your goggles if you wish to resist
From the fiery depths of the planet’s core
The never sleeping for want of eating unholy stench of the manticore”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- sphinx 85% match — A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal, commonly a lion. vs manticore →
- hieracosphinx 83% match — A mythical beast found in Egyptian sculpture and European heraldry, being a lion with the head of a falcon. vs manticore →
- centaur 83% match — A mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse. vs manticore →
- chimera 82% match — Any fantastic creature combining parts from different animals. vs manticore →
- minotaur 82% match — Anything resembling the Greek monster, whether by appearance or by strength. vs manticore →
- wyvern 81% match — A draconian creature possessing wings, only two legs and usually a barbed tail. vs manticore →
- harpy 80% match — A mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale with hunger and long claws on her hands personifying the destructive power of storm winds. vs manticore →
- dragon 80% match — A mythical reptilian or serpentine creature.; In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath. vs manticore →