medusa means the youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.
medusa is pronounced /mɪˈdjuːsə/.
Why “medusa” is a great word
A petrifying monster, mortal among the Gorgons, and, in zoology, the free-swimming, umbrella-shaped life stage of a jellyfish. From Latin Medūsa, from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), derived from μέδω (médō, "to rule over, guard, protect"), the biological sense was first used as a genus name in 1758. Unlike "Gorgon," which names the collective of immortal, snake-haired terrors, or "polyp," the sessile, tubular juvenile form, medusa is the singular, mortal figure and the liberated, drifting form. It is the severed head held aloft as a weapon, the translucent bell pulsing through black water, and the dread guardian whose lethal gaze was also a prison—a dual form of fatal beauty, forever suspended between myth and the weightless, tentacled drift of the deep.
Etymology
From Middle English Medusa, Meduse, from Latin Medūsa, from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).
name
- The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.“1895, Adolf Furtwängler, Eugenie Strong (editor and translator), Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art, 2010, →ISBN, page 201,
On an Attic vase of the middle of the fifth century the head of Medusa in the hand of Perseus is represented as that of a beautiful woman free from any distortion. This led us to conclude (supra, p. 158) that Medusa must have been so rep”
noun
- A jellyfish; specifically, a non-polyp form of individual cnidarians, consisting of a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles.“Typically, what we think of as the jellyfish, the medusa, reproduces sexually, spawning sperm and eggs which, once fertilised, turn into sea anemone-like polyps, which attach themselves to the jellyfish’s bottom or other surfaces.”
- Synonym of worm-star.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- gorgonian 83% match — Of or relating to the mythical gorgon; terrible or repulsive. vs medusa →
- hydra 82% match — A dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed. vs medusa →
- gorgon 81% match — A vicious female monster from Greek mythology with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes. One of the three sisters: Medusa, Stheno and Euryale vs medusa →
- pegasus 78% match — Any winged horse; pterippus. vs medusa →
- cyclops 78% match — A one-eyed giant from Greek and Roman mythology. vs medusa →
- sphinx 78% match — A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal, commonly a lion. vs medusa →
- petrify 78% match — To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals. vs medusa →
- mermaid 78% match — A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish. vs medusa →