Hades

[ hey-deez ]

noun

1. Classical Mythology.
   1. the underworld inhabited by departed souls.
   2. the god ruling the underworld; Pluto.
2. (in the Revised Version of the New Testament) the abode or state of the dead.
3. (often lowercase) hell.

Hades

/ ˈheɪdɪən; ˈheɪdiːz; heɪˈdiːən /

noun

1. Greek myth
   1. the underworld abode of the souls of the dead
   2. Pluto, the god of the underworld, brother of Zeus and husband of Persephone
2. New Testament the abode or state of the dead
3. informal.
   often not capital hell

Hades

1. The Greek and Roman god of the underworld and the ruler of the dead. Also called Dis. The underworld itself was also known to the Greeks as Hades.

Notes

The Greek and Roman underworld later became associated with the hell of Christianity , as in the expression “hot as Hades.”

Derived Forms

• Hadean, adjective

Other Words From

• Ha·de·an [hey-, dee, -, uh, n, hey, -dee-, uh, n], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hades¹

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

Trump strikes a deal with the devil and then uses the devil’s own advice to overpower him and become the King of Hades.

From Salon

Hades was escapism that told a story about escaping, an entertaining time-waster when time was all we had.

From New York Times

When Supergiant Games was wrapping up Hades, a mythologically rich hack-and-slash dungeon crawler it had spent more than three years developing, the studio concluded it was not quite done.

From New York Times

But I give it to his strategists — Newsom saw this future at the gates of Hades and created a unique lane that we didn’t know we needed: preacher to the uncommitted.

From Los Angeles Times

The actor and singer star enters Broadway’s “Hadestown,” the brooding 2019 Tony Award-winning musical about the underworld, which intertwines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• inferno
• misery
• nightmare
• purgatory