Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • King of the Huns (433?–453) who reigned over a large empire. He led a successful invasion of the Roman Empire but stopped short of sacking Rome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ornithology, a genus of South American tyrant flycatchers, family Tyrannidæ, sometimes giving name to a subfamily Attilinæ. A. cinerea is the type, and about 12 other species are included in the genus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Tyrannidae — the attilas.
  • proper noun A king of the tribes of Huns.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun king of the Huns; the most successful barbarian invader of the Roman Empire (406-453)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Poems on the death of Attila -- the _Lay of Attila_ (_Atlakviða_), and the Greenland _Poem of Attila_ (_Atlamál_) 105

    Epic and Romance Essays on Medieval Literature W. P. Ker

  • But Attila is a brilliant leader and strategist, forming alliances and negotiating deals and treaties where necessary to initially protect his people, but ultimately to gain the upper hand.

    “The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome” by Christopher Kelly (Norton, 2009) « The BookBanter Blog 2010

  • But Attila is a brilliant leader and strategist, forming alliances and negotiating deals and treaties where necessary to initially protect his people, but ultimately to gain the upper hand.

    2010 March 12 « The BookBanter Blog 2010

  • “When she was still active, they called her Attila the Huness.”

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • “When she was still active, they called her Attila the Huness.”

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • “When she was still active, they called her Attila the Huness.”

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • His Tahirian guide, whom he called Attila - a perfectly respectable Hungarian name - felt likewise, and suggested a subtropical island en knew.

    Starfarers Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1998

  • The great criminal of this century, the man whose name will go down in history with Caligula and Attila is William the Second, German Emperor.

    Woodrow Wilson and the Doctrine of Sovereignty 1918

  • Attila from the murder of his brother; and is almost inclined to reject the concurrent testimony of Jornandes, and the contemporary

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Which makes it all the more surprising that earlier this season, New Yorkers were to see yet another stage production - of Verdi's early opera "Attila" - designed by the buzzy architecture team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the Swiss visionaries who created the iconic and much-admired "Bird's Nest" stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

    LJWorld.com stories: News Philip Kennicott/The Washington Post 2010

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