harpy

1. 1.

   a malicious woman with a fierce temper

   Synonymsvixenhellcat

   Broaderunpleasant woman
2. 2.

   (Greek mythology) vicious winged monster; often depicted as a bird with the head of a woman

   Broadermythical monster

   Greek mythology

3. 3.

   any of various fruit bats of the genus Nyctimene distinguished by nostrils drawn out into diverging tubes

   Synonymsharpy battube-nosed battube-nosed fruit bat

   Broaderfruit bat

   Part ofNyctimene
4. 4.

   large black-and-white crested eagle of tropical America

   Synonymsharpy eagleHarpia harpyja

   Broadereagle

   Part ofHarpia

Other forms of harpy

plural

harpies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about harpy

What does harpy mean?

harpy means "a malicious woman with a fierce temper". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in harpy?

harpy has 2 syllables: har-py. The stress falls on "har".

What is another word for harpy?

Close synonyms include vixen, hellcat, harpy bat, tube-nosed bat, tube-nosed fruit bat. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is harpy a common word?

harpy is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.