eureka
/jʊˈɹiː.kə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.32 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
intj
An exclamation indicating a sudden discovery.
name
A locality in the Byron council area, north-eastern New South Wales, Australia.
name
A community in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
name
A small research base in Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada.
name
A settlement in Waikato district, Waikato region, New Zealand.
Example Sentences
- "I rolled back the rug and eureka - there it was!"
- "Eureka! I have found it! What I mean / To say is, not that love is idleness, / But that in love such idleness has been / An accessory, as I have cause to guess."
- ""Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. "Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved.""
- "A page is turned - eureka, a snatch of tune / is playing itself, the piss-proud syllables / are unveiling a difficult prosody."
- "Before dawn this morning, five of us drove into Eureka."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: εὕρηκα
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /jʊˈɹiː.kə/
- British English: /jəˈɹiː.kə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
eureka! (canonical)