Aristophanes

American  

[ar-uh-stof-uh-neez] / ˌær əˈstɒf əˌniz /

noun

1. 448?–385? b.c., Athenian comic dramatist.

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Aristophanes British  

/ ˌærɪˈstɒfəˌniːz /

noun

1. ?448–?380 _bc , Greek comic dramatist, who satirized leading contemporary figures such as Socrates and Euripides. Eleven of his plays are extant, including The Clouds, The Frogs, The Birds, and Lysistrata

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Aristophanes Cultural  

1. An ancient Greek dramatist, the author of such comedies as The Clouds and Lysistrata.

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Other Word Forms

• Aristophanic adjective

Example Sentences

“Playwrights like Aristophanes were there to make fun of the rulers but also to make our hearts bleed about the tragedy of humankind,” Ms. Evangelatos said.

From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2022

The show, based on the Aristophanes comedy, originally had been done 20 years earlier in the Yale University swimming pool.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 26, 2021

He came across a reference to Ariphrades made by a playwright of more enduring fame, Aristophanes.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 16, 2021

Aristophanes is a reference to my previous column, where I mentioned that classics scholars still debate what certain lines in the Greek’s plays mean.

From Washington Post • Jul. 25, 2021

In his comic play The Clouds, Aristophanes, writing in 420 bc, lampooned rhetoric as the art of weak reasoning, “which by false arguments triumphs over the strong.”

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith