hoplite
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- hoplitic adjective
Etymology
Origin of hoplite
1720–30; < Greek hoplī́tēs, equivalent to hópl ( on ) piece of armor, particularly the large shield + -ītēs -ite 1
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.
Sparta was an agrarian oligarchy whose muscle was its hoplite horde.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
On a battlefield near Thebes in 371, Epaminondas broke the Spartan hoplite phalanx and killed one of its kings.
From Slate • Jan. 16, 2024
Each hoplite had to be a free Greek citizen of his polis and had to be able to pay for his own weapons and armor.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020
Socrates first distinguished himself as a hoplite, or heavily armed infantryman, in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
From Fox News • Mar. 12, 2019
In the military arts, Hellenistic armies progressed far beyond the crude set-piece tactics of hoplite warfare.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
