Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The Greek goddess of love and beauty, identified by the Romans with their Venus, who was originally a deity of much less importance.
  • noun [NL.] In zool.: A genus of chætopodous annelids, typical of the family Aphroditidæ (which see). A genus of lepidopterous insects. Hübner, 1816. A genus of bivalve mollusks. Also written Aphrodita. Isaac Lea.
  • noun [lowercase] A variety of meerschaum. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesium.

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

  • noun (Classic Myth.) The Greek goddess of love, corresponding to the Venus of the Romans.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A large marine annelid, covered with long, lustrous, golden, hairlike setæ; the sea mouse.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A beautiful butterfly (Argunnis Aphrodite) of the United States.

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

  • noun mineralogy A soft and earthy mineral of a white or yellowish color, and with a waxy lustre, found at Langbanshytta in Sweden. It is a hydrated silicate of magnesia, and resembles meerschaum.

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

  • noun goddess of love and beauty and daughter of Zeus in ancient mythology; identified with Roman Venus

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From stem of Ancient Greek ἀφρός (aphrós, "sea foam, froth") (for its supposed resemblance) +‎ -ite.

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