Pharos

[ fair-os ]
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noun
  1. a small peninsula in northern Egypt, near Alexandria: site of ancient lighthouse built by Ptolemy.

  2. the lighthouse on this peninsula.: Compare Seven Wonders of the World.

  1. (lowercase) any lighthouse or beacon to direct sailors.

Origin of Pharos

1
First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin Pharos, Pharus, from Greek Pháros, the name of an island (now a peninsula) lying off Alexandria; the name of the lighthouse at the eastern end of the island; a lighthouse

Words Nearby Pharos

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Pharos in a sentence

  • Even when the Pharos was reared, the primitive mode of illumination by means of wood or coal was employed.

    The Towns of Roman Britain | James Oliver Bevan
  • He stood like a Pharos, and the light of his face kindled the crests of the living waves around him.

  • Proteus is called the Carpathian wizard because his cave was on the island of Pharos, or Carpathos.

  • The same year, the island of Pharos itself, originally seven furlongs distant from the continent, was joined to it by a causeway.

  • A handsome cutter, called ‘The Pharos,’ is stationed here as a tender to the lighthouse.

British Dictionary definitions for Pharos

Pharos

/ (ˈfɛərɒs) /


noun
  1. a large Hellenistic lighthouse built on an island off Alexandria in Egypt in about 280 bc and destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century: usually included among the Seven Wonders of the World

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