penelope

1. 1.

   (Greek mythology) the wife of Odysseus and a symbol of devotion and fidelity; for 10 years while Odysseus fought the Trojan War she resisted numerous suitors until Odysseus returned and killed them

   Broadermythical being

   Greek mythology

2. 2.

   a genus of guans (turkey-like arboreal birds valued as game and food birds)

   Synonymsgenus Penelope

   Broaderbird genus

   Part ofCracidae

Other forms of penelope

plural

penelopes·

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 penelope

What does penelope mean?

penelope means "(Greek mythology) the wife of Odysseus and a symbol of devotion and fidelity; for 10 years while Odysseus fought the Trojan War she resisted numerous suitors until Odysseus returned and killed them". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in penelope?

penelope has 4 syllables, though it cannot be divided in writing — the spelling has fewer vowels than the word has beats. In IPA it is /pəˈnɛləpi/.

What is another word for penelope?

Close synonyms include genus Penelope. 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 penelope a common word?

penelope is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.