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.
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
The Spartans, the ace hoplite fighters of the Greek world, responded positively to the Athenians' desperate last-minute request for aid, but in their own time.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 24, 2010
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.
