Heroic

How to spell heroic

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce heroic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does heroic mean?

1. adjectiveShowing great courage, daring, or self-sacrifice; worthy of a hero.

Heroic in a sentence

• The firefighters made a heroic effort to reach the trapped family.

• Her heroic recovery after the accident inspired the whole ward.

Where does heroic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek hērōs, which named a man of superhuman strength or divine descent, the sort of figure celebrated in the legends of Achilles and Heracles. The adjective form hērōikos meant 'relating to such heroes' and was applied especially to the grand epic poetry that told their stories. Latin took it up as heroicus, and from there it travelled through Old French heroique before settling into English in the sixteenth century. Along the way the meaning broadened from 'belonging to the demigods of myth' to the everyday sense of brave, noble, and self-sacrificing actions performed by ordinary people. The spelling keeps the full hero plus -ic, so the trap is simply remembering that the e and the o stay as separate sounds rather than collapsing.

How the word is built

• hero- (from Greek hērōs: protector, demigod, brave warrior)
• -ic (adjective suffix)