Siren

How to spell siren

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce siren

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does siren mean?

1. nounA device that produces a loud wailing sound as a signal or warning.
2. nounA creature of Greek myth whose enchanting song lured sailors to their deaths; by extension, a dangerously alluring woman.

Siren in a sentence

• The ambulance siren grew louder as it neared the junction.

• In the ancient tale, a siren sang from the rocks to draw ships off course.

• The factory tested its air-raid siren on the first Monday of each month.

• The novel cast its heroine as a siren who lured wealthy men to ruin.

Where does siren come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek Seiren, the name of the dangerous sea creatures of myth who sang so sweetly that passing sailors steered onto the rocks and drowned. Greek passed the name to Latin as Sirena, and from there it travelled through Old French into Middle English during the 1300s, at first purely as the mythological figure. Over time it broadened to mean any alluring or dangerously tempting woman, which is why we still speak of a 'siren song'. The modern mechanical sense, a loud warning device, was coined in the early 1800s by the French physicist Cagniard de la Tour, who named his acoustic instrument after the mythical singers because it too produced a piercing tone. The single r and the plain -en ending are the spelling points to watch, since the word looks deceptively simple but is sometimes given a doubled letter or an -on ending in error.

How the word is built

• siren (from Greek Seiren, the mythological sea creature whose song lured sailors); no internal affixes