Definitions

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

  • noun Greek Mythology The many-headed monster that was slain by Hercules.
  • noun Astronomy A satellite of Pluto.
  • noun A constellation in the equatorial region of the southern sky near Cancer, Libra, and Centaurus.
  • noun A persistent or multifaceted problem that cannot be eradicated by a single effort.

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

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Hydridae — predatory freshwater cnidarians, thought not to age, the hydras.
  • proper noun Greek mythology A mythological serpent with seven heads, slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labours. Also called the Lernaean Hydra.
  • proper noun astronomy A spring constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a serpent. It lies just south of the zodiac and contains the star Alphard.
  • proper noun astronomy The name of one of Pluto's moons. (Named 21 June 2006).

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Idra, from Latin Hydra, from Greek Hudrā, Hydra, a water serpent; see wed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Hydra, the mythical serpent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Hydra, the mythical serpent, originally from Ancient Greek Ὕδρα.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Hydra.

Examples

  • And another commentator described what he dubbed the Hydra Effect, which means drugs are so profitable and so cheap to produce that even if you begin to cut off the supply in one part of the world, it simply rears its head in another part of the world.

    Is The Drug War Forever? 1998

  • It was Julia who’d dreamed up the name Hydra for the miracle anti-inflammatory that also softened your stool, improved your mood, lowered your blood pressure, and didn’t eat away your intestinal lining.

    Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006

  • It was Julia who’d dreamed up the name Hydra for the miracle anti-inflammatory that also softened your stool, improved your mood, lowered your blood pressure, and didn’t eat away your intestinal lining.

    Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006

  • It was Julia who’d dreamed up the name Hydra for the miracle anti-inflammatory that also softened your stool, improved your mood, lowered your blood pressure, and didn’t eat away your intestinal lining.

    Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006

  • The Hydra is two miles off short so that would be the mark at the top.

    The Tail Section » LOST - Are the others Scientologists? 2007

  • A star in Hydra has been swallowing its own planets -- naughty, naughty!

    Boing Boing: May 6, 2001 - May 12, 2001 Archives 2001

  • Pixel Bender was formerly called Hydra and it has been shown publicly on several occasions.

    News 2009

  • Pixel Bender was formerly called Hydra and it has been shown publicly on several occasions.

    News 2009

  • 11In 1921, Kallihroe Parren returned from her political exile in Hydra to find that the terms of women's emancipation had shifted significantly.

    Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

  • The chess machine Hydra, which is a chess-specific supercomputer like Deep Blue, was no match for a strong human player using a relatively weak laptop.

    Garry Kasparov On 'Chess Metaphors': The Chess Master And The Computer 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.