Definitions

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

  • noun A body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes.
  • noun A body of myths associated with an event, individual, or institution.
  • noun The field of scholarship dealing with the systematic collection and study of myths.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The science of myths; the science which investigates myths with a view to their interpretation and to discover the degree of relationship existing between the myths of different peoples; also, the description or history of myths.
  • noun A system of myths or fables in which are embodied the convictions of a people in regard to their origin, divinities, heroes, founders, etc. See myth.

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

  • noun The science which treats of myths; a treatise on myths.
  • noun A body of myths; esp., the collective myths which describe the gods of a heathen people.

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

  • noun countable and uncountable The collection of myths of a people, concerning the origin of the people, history, deities, ancestors and heroes.
  • noun countable and uncountable A similar body of myths concerning an event, person or institution.
  • noun countable and uncountable Pervasive elements of a fictional universe that resemble a mythological universe.
  • noun uncountable The systematic collection and study of myths.

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

  • noun myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person
  • noun the study of myths

Etymologies

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

[French mythologie, from Late Latin mȳthologia, from Greek mūthologiā, story-telling : mūthos, story + logos, saying; see –logy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in English in 1412. From Middle French mythologie, from Latin mythologia, from Ancient Greek μυθολογία (muthologia, "legend") μυθολογέω (muthologeō, "I tell tales"), from μυθολόγος (muthologos, "legend"), from μῦθος (muthos, "story") + λέγω (legō, "I say").

Support

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

Examples

Comments

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