"Sisyphean" meaning in All languages combined

See Sisyphean on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

IPA: /ˌsɪsəˈfiːən/ Audio: En-us-Sisyphean.ogg [US]
enPR: sīs'əfēʹən Etymology: From Sisyphus, from Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was doomed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill in Hades, only to have it roll back down again. Etymology templates: {{m|en|Sisyphus}} Sisyphus, {{der|en|grc|Σίσυφος}} Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos) Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} Sisyphean (not comparable)
  1. Incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile. Tags: not-comparable Synonyms: herd cats, like painting the Forth Bridge Translations (incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile): сизифов (sizifov) (Bulgarian), sisyfovský (Czech), sisyfolainen (Finnish), sisyphéen (French), sisyphien (French), sisypheisch [rare] (German), sziszifuszi (Hungarian), syzyfowy (Polish), sisifian [masculine, neuter] (Romanian), сизи́фов (sizífov) (Russian), сізі́фів (sizífiv) (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-Sisyphean-en-adj-fetE0Ikl Categories (other): English terms with collocations Disambiguation of 'incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile': 94 6
  2. (Greek mythology) Relating to Sisyphus. Tags: Greek, not-comparable Categories (topical): Greek mythology Translations (relating to Sisyphus): сизифов (sizifov) (Bulgarian), sisyfolainen (Finnish), Sisyfoon (Finnish), sziszifuszi (Hungarian), syzyfowy (Polish), сізі́фів (sizífiv) (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-Sisyphean-en-adj-VePek2Sq Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 60 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 34 66 Topics: human-sciences, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, sciences Disambiguation of 'relating to Sisyphus': 4 96
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: Sisyphusean, sisyphean, Sisyphian, Sysyphean, sisyphic, sisiphic

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for Sisyphean meaning in All languages combined (6.4kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "Sisyphus",
      "name": "m"
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      "args": {
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        "3": "Σίσυφος"
      },
      "expansion": "Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos)",
      "name": "der"
    }
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  "etymology_text": "From Sisyphus, from Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was doomed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill in Hades, only to have it roll back down again.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "Sisyphean (not comparable)",
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  "pos": "adj",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Sisyphean task",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Sisyphean labors",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Mary Higgs, Glimpses into the Abyss",
          "text": "Four bucketsful of water—one for each cell—seven for the long passage, two for lavatory and w.c.'s, brasses to clean, paint to dust. It seemed a Sisyphean task, no sooner ended than a new one was exacted.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848",
          "text": "As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 March 8, Lauren Smiley, “‘I’m the Operator’: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy”, in Wired",
          "text": "But whoever does the policing, whether a supervisor or an operator, faces a Sisyphean battle against a well-documented phenomenon: something called automation complacency. When you automate any part of a task, the human overseer starts to trust that the machine has it handled and stops paying attention.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "word": "herd cats"
        },
        {
          "word": "like painting the Forth Bridge"
        }
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "sizifov",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
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          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "sisyfovský"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "sisyfolainen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "sisyphéen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "sisyphien"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "tags": [
            "rare"
          ],
          "word": "sisypheisch"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "sziszifuszi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "syzyfowy"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "tags": [
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            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "sisifian"
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        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "sizífov",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "сизи́фов"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "uk",
          "lang": "Ukrainian",
          "roman": "sizífiv",
          "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
          "word": "сізі́фів"
        }
      ]
    },
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        "Relating to Sisyphus."
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        "(Greek mythology) Relating to Sisyphus."
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "sizifov",
          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "сизифов"
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          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "sisyfolainen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "Sisyfoon"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "sziszifuszi"
        },
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          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "pl",
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          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "syzyfowy"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "code": "uk",
          "lang": "Ukrainian",
          "roman": "sizífiv",
          "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
          "word": "сізі́фів"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɪsəˈfiːən/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-Sisyphean.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/31/En-us-Sisyphean.ogg/En-us-Sisyphean.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-us-Sisyphean.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sīs'əfēʹən"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Sisyphusean"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "sisyphean"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Sisyphian"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Sysyphean"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "sisyphic"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "sisiphic"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Sisyphean"
  ],
  "word": "Sisyphean"
}
{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English eponyms",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms derived from Ancient Greek",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncomparable adjectives"
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      "expansion": "Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos)",
      "name": "der"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Sisyphus, from Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was doomed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill in Hades, only to have it roll back down again.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "pos": "adj",
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        "English terms with quotations"
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      "examples": [
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          "text": "Sisyphean task",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Sisyphean labors",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Mary Higgs, Glimpses into the Abyss",
          "text": "Four bucketsful of water—one for each cell—seven for the long passage, two for lavatory and w.c.'s, brasses to clean, paint to dust. It seemed a Sisyphean task, no sooner ended than a new one was exacted.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848",
          "text": "As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2022 March 8, Lauren Smiley, “‘I’m the Operator’: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy”, in Wired",
          "text": "But whoever does the policing, whether a supervisor or an operator, faces a Sisyphean battle against a well-documented phenomenon: something called automation complacency. When you automate any part of a task, the human overseer starts to trust that the machine has it handled and stops paying attention.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile."
      ],
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          "Incessant",
          "incessant"
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        [
          "recur",
          "recur"
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      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "herd cats"
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        {
          "word": "like painting the Forth Bridge"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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      "glosses": [
        "Relating to Sisyphus."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Greek mythology) Relating to Sisyphus."
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  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˌsɪsəˈfiːən/"
    },
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      "tags": [
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    {
      "enpr": "sīs'əfēʹən"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Sisyphusean"
    },
    {
      "word": "sisyphean"
    },
    {
      "word": "Sisyphian"
    },
    {
      "word": "Sysyphean"
    },
    {
      "word": "sisyphic"
    },
    {
      "word": "sisiphic"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "sizifov",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "сизифов"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "sisyfovský"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "sisyfolainen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "sisyphéen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "sisyphien"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "tags": [
        "rare"
      ],
      "word": "sisypheisch"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "sziszifuszi"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "syzyfowy"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "sisifian"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "sizífov",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "сизи́фов"
    },
    {
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "sizífiv",
      "sense": "incessant or incessantly recurring, but futile",
      "word": "сізі́фів"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "sizifov",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "сизифов"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "sisyfolainen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "Sisyfoon"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "sziszifuszi"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "syzyfowy"
    },
    {
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "sizífiv",
      "sense": "relating to Sisyphus",
      "word": "сізі́фів"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Sisyphean"
  ],
  "word": "Sisyphean"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.