Definitions

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

  • noun The Cyclops who confined Odysseus and his companions in a cave until Odysseus blinded him and escaped.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An animal which has only one eye, whether naturally or abnormally; a cyclops.
  • noun The specific name of the king-crab, Limulus polyphemus.
  • noun [capitalized] In Crustacea, the typical genus of the family Polyphemidæ: so called from the large solitary and apparently single eye formed by the coalescence of a pair of eyes. P. stagnorum is an example.
  • noun Any member of the family Polyphemidæ.
  • noun In Lepidoptera, the technical specific and (absolutely) the vernacular name of one of the largest American silkworms or silkworm-moths, Telea polyphemus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A very large American moth (Telea polyphemus) belonging to the Silkworm family (Bombycidæ). Its larva, which is very large, bright green, with silvery tubercles, and with oblique white stripes on the sides, feeds on the oak, chestnut, willow, cherry, apple, and other trees. It produces a large amount of strong silk. Called also American silkworm.

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

  • proper noun Greek mythology A cyclops in Homer's Odyssey.

Etymologies

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

[Latin Polyphēmus, from Greek Poluphēmos, from poluphēmos, famous : polu-, much; see poly– + phēmē, saying, report; see bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Polyphemus, from Ancient Greek Πολύφημος (Poluphēmos).

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