corypheus
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.08 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The conductor or leader of the dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece.
Example Sentences
- "In this work Homer and Virgil already appear beside Cicero and Plato as doctrinal authorities. The four corypheuses are infallible; any contradiction between them is wholly out of the question."
- "That noted corypheus of the Independent faction."
- "Let us blithely hail, throughout the whole universe, these disciples of Christ, these two Coryphei, Peter and Paul : O Peter, the Foundation-stone and Rock ; and thou also, O Paul, Vessel of Election."
- "Then Corypheus Marat, author of the Friend of the People, constantly denounced him as the traitor Lafayette."
- "Chauncey Wright, something of a philosophical celebrity in those days, was never absent from our meetings. I was about to call him our corypheus; but he will better be described as our boxing-master whom we—I particularly—used to face to be severely pummelled."
- "The Gnostic depreciation of the cosmos and its creator aroused the ire of the founder and corypheus of the Neoplatonic School, Plotinus (205-70), who presided over an academia in Rome and possibly had a private mystical practice."
Etymology
From Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head”).
Inflected Forms
corypheuses (plural)
coryphei (plural)
coryphæus (alternative)
coryphaeus (alternative)
koryphaios (alternative)