Phoenix

How to spell phoenix

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce phoenix

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does phoenix mean?

1. nounA mythical bird that burns itself and is reborn from its own ashes, often used as a symbol of renewal after destruction.

Phoenix in a sentence

• The ancient legend describes a phoenix rising from the flames every few centuries.

• The tattoo on her shoulder showed a phoenix with its wings spread.

Where does phoenix come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the ancient Greek phoinix, the name of a fabulous bird said to live for centuries, burn itself on a funeral pyre, and rise again newborn from its own ashes. The same Greek word carried a tangle of related meanings: it also referred to the colour deep red or purple, to the date palm, and to the Phoenicians, the seafaring people famous for that reddish-purple dye, so scholars have long debated which meaning came first. Latin took the bird over as phoenix, keeping the Greek oe spelling, and Old English borrowed it early as fenix before later writers restored the classical look. The modern English spelling deliberately preserves the Greek-into-Latin shape, which is exactly why it traps writers: the /f/ sound is written ph and the long ee sound is written oe rather than the phonetic letters you would expect. Because of its myth, the word has come to mean any person or thing that makes a remarkable comeback after apparent ruin.

How the word is built

• phoenix (a single Greek root, phoinix); the tricky parts are ph- spelling the /f/ sound and the -oe- digraph spelling a long /ee/