Hero

How to spell hero

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hero

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hero mean?

1. nounA person admired for great courage, achievements, or noble qualities.
2. nounThe central character of a story, film, or play.
3. nounA large sandwich made in a long roll filled with meat, cheese, and salad.

Hero in a sentence

• The firefighter was hailed as a hero after the rescue.

• The hero of the novel must defeat a corrupt empire.

• He ordered a foot-long hero stuffed with salami and provolone.

• Her grandfather became a local hero during the war.

• Every chapter follows the hero as he travels north.

• The deli is famous for its meatball hero on a crusty roll.

Where does hero come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Hero comes from the ancient Greek hērōs, which described a warrior or demigod, a figure of more than human strength who was often honoured after death with worship at a shrine. The Greeks used it for the great men of legend, the sons of gods and mortals who appear throughout their epics. Latin took the word over as heros, and from there it passed into Old French and then into English in the late 1300s, at first carrying that same sense of a famous man of antiquity. Over the centuries the meaning broadened to cover anyone admired for outstanding courage or noble deeds, and by the 1600s it also named the central figure of a play, poem, or story. A small spelling point worth noting is that the plural takes -es (heroes), even though the adjective heroic and the noun heroism drop straight back to the bare root.

How the word is built

• hero (from Greek hērōs: protector, demigod); plural usually heroes