Bucephalus

American

[byoo-sef-uh-luhs] / byuˈsɛf ə ləs /

noun

the horse used by Alexander the Great on most of his military campaigns.

Bucephalus British

/ bjuːˈsɛfələs /

noun

the favourite horse of Alexander the Great

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Bucephalus

C17: from Latin, from Greek Boukephalos , from bous ox + kephalē head

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Colin Firth plays Sir Bucephalus Hodge, a bigwig whose exact credentials escape me, but who’s giving the university a new science building.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026

Not written poetry, or doggerel comparing every allowance-race winner to Shadowfax or Bucephalus, but the aesthetic intensity one experiences in the presence of the inexplicable.

From Time • May 3, 2013

Riding Bucephalus at the head of a great army, he conquered the lands from Greece to the Indus Valley.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

Read any history of Alexander and Bucephalus, his horse and constant companion, looms large.

From BBC • Jan. 13, 2010

When the king was a boy, Bucephalus was brought before Philip, King of Macedon, Alexander’s father, by Philonicus the Thessalian, and offered for sale for the large sum of thirteen talents.

From The Animal Story Book by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023