Definitions

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

  • noun Greek Mythology A priestess of Apollo at Delphi.
  • noun A prophetess.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The Pythia or especial priestess of Apollo at his temple at Delphi, who was supposed to be inspired to give his oracular answers; hence, any woman supposed to have a spirit of divination; a witch.

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

  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) The priestess who gave oracular answers at Delphi in Greece.
  • noun Any woman supposed to have a spirit of divination; a sort of witch.

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

  • noun Alternative capitalization of Pythoness
  • noun A female soothsayer
  • noun A female python.

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

  • noun a witch with powers of divination
  • noun (Greek mythology) the priestess of Apollo at Delphi who transmitted the oracles

Etymologies

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

[Middle English phitonesse, from Old French phitonise, from Late Latin pȳthonissa, from Greek Pūthōn, Python; see Python.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See Pythoness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

python +‎ -ess

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Examples

  • She was known as the Kansas pythoness in those days before women's suffrage made such references to a woman's sex politically incorrect.

    Ken Blackwell: Piddler on the Roof Ken Blackwell 2011

  • She was known as the Kansas pythoness in those days before women's suffrage made such references to a woman's sex politically incorrect.

    Ken Blackwell: Piddler on the Roof Ken Blackwell 2011

  • Each one was sharp enough to weaken a normal man, render him helpless and send him to his knees begging for mercy in the face of a powerful Wiccan pythoness like Mysti.

    The After Wife Lexi Davis 2009

  • Each one was sharp enough to weaken a normal man, render him helpless and send him to his knees begging for mercy in the face of a powerful Wiccan pythoness like Mysti.

    The After Wife Lexi Davis 2009

  • Like a pythoness possessed by the demon, she inspired awe rather than pleasure.

    The Magic Skin 2007

  • It is only necessary to have a spirit like the pythoness; and, to bring this spirit of pythonism into successful operation it is only necessary that one party should be a knave and the other a fool; and no one can deny that such rencontres very frequently occur.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • The modern Chams find no difficulty worshipping the Hindu Trinity,the linga, the bull of Siva, a pythoness, Allah-- who is believed to have been an eleventh century Cham king-- plus Mohammed and a number of uncomprehended words taken from the Muslim invocations and regarded as the names of deities, each with its special function.

    Archive 2005-07-01 2005

  • The modern Chams find no difficulty worshipping the Hindu Trinity,the linga, the bull of Siva, a pythoness, Allah-- who is believed to have been an eleventh century Cham king-- plus Mohammed and a number of uncomprehended words taken from the Muslim invocations and regarded as the names of deities, each with its special function.

    Some Travel Writing 2005

  • Alone like a pythoness on her tripod, like the oracle alone above the fissure into the unknown.

    Kangaroo 2004

  • He had approached the family mansion in so blindly buoyant a spirit as to have set up his camera to photograph his first sight of it; and even the camera had taken on the semblance of the tripod of a tragic pythoness.

    The Complete Father Brown 2003

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