phoenix
Meanings
Plural: phoenices, phoenix, phoenixes
Noun
- the state capital and largest city located in south central Arizona; situated in a former desert that has become a prosperous agricultural area thanks to irrigation
- a large monocotyledonous genus of pinnate-leaved palms found in Asia and Africa
- a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years
- a constellation in the southern hemisphere near Tucana and Sculptor
- A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
- Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.
- A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
- A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.
- A marvelous person or thing.
- Alternative letter-case form of Phoenix (“A geometer moth of species Eulithis prunata.”).
Verb
- To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability
Origin / Etymology
From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian bnw (boinu, “grey heron”). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.
Synonyms
capital of Arizona, genus Phoenix
Scrabble Score: 19
phoenix is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordphoenix is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
phoenix is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary