Hydra

How to spell hydra

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hydra

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hydra mean?

1. nounA small freshwater animal with a tubular body and a ring of tentacles, noted for its ability to regenerate.

Hydra in a sentence

• Under the microscope the students watched a tiny hydra extend its tentacles.

• A hydra can regrow its whole body from a small fragment of tissue.

Where does hydra come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes straight from the ancient Greek hydra, the name of a monstrous many-headed water serpent slain by Heracles in classical myth; whenever one of its heads was cut off, two more grew back in its place. The name was built on the Greek root hydor, meaning simply 'water', the same element that lives on in everyday words such as 'hydrate', 'hydrogen' and 'hydraulic'. Latin took the creature's name over unchanged as hydra, and English adopted it during the late Middle Ages, at first only for the mythical beast. From there it broadened into a figurative label for any stubborn problem that keeps regrowing as fast as you suppress it, and naturalists later borrowed it again for a tiny freshwater animal whose tentacles and regrowing body recalled the legendary monster. The spelling keeps the Greek 'y' that English so often uses to mark a Greek origin, which is the main thing a writer has to remember.

How the word is built

• hydr- (from Greek hydor: water)
• -a (Greek noun ending)