phaethon

1. 1.

   (Greek mythology) son of Helios; killed when trying to drive his father's chariot and came too close to earth

   BroaderGreek deity

   Greek mythology

2. 2.

   type genus of the Phaethontidae

   Synonymsgenus Phaethon

   Broaderbird genus

   Part ofPhaethontidae

Other forms of phaethon

plural

phaethons·

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 phaethon

What does phaethon mean?

phaethon means "(Greek mythology) son of Helios; killed when trying to drive his father's chariot and came too close to earth". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in phaethon?

phaethon has 3 syllables: pha-e-thon. The stress falls on "pha".

What is another word for phaethon?

Close synonyms include genus Phaethon. 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 phaethon a common word?

phaethon is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.