Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

pile pelion on ossa

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.49 in modern English

Syllables: pile pe-lion on os-sa
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

16

Letters

3

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To make a difficult situation even worse.

Example Sentences

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already allowed a unanimous consent request for the whistleblower documents to proceed. Today, McConnell piled Pelion on Ossa, announcing that if the House votes to impeach Trump, he would have no choice but to take it up."
"A task force will determine which research projects get funding – piling Pelion on Ossa – there are even plans to restrict admissions which would mean that universities will be able to recruit only five per cent more students than last year in order to prevent them poaching from lesser rivals."

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek story of Otus and Ephialtes, who piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa in an attempt to storm Mount Olympus.

Inflected Forms

piles Pelion on Ossa (present, singular) piling Pelion on Ossa (participle, present) piled Pelion on Ossa (participle, past) piled Pelion on Ossa (past)

Questions

What does pile pelion on ossa mean?: To make a difficult situation even worse.
Where does pile pelion on ossa come from?: From the Ancient Greek story of Otus and Ephialtes, who piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa in an attempt to storm Mount Olympus.

How to pronounce pile pelion on ossa

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