See ouroboros on Wiktionary
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"t1": "tail",
"t2": "-devouring"
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"expansion": "Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”)))",
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"etymology_text": "From Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”))).",
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{
"ref": "1968 [1951], R. F. C. Hull, transl., Aion […] (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung), 2nd edition, volume 9.2, Princeton University Press, translation of original by C. G. Jung, →ISBN, page 264:",
"text": "The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 41:",
"text": "Khepera eating his own seed is a model of Romantic creativity, where the self is isolated and sexually dual. Khepera bent over himself is a uroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, a magic circle of regeneration and rebirth. The uroboros is the prehistoric track of natural cycle, from which Judaism and Hellenism make a conceptual break.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 121:",
"text": "One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge, →ISBN:",
"text": "First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […]",
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[
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[
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[
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[
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"(mythology) A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death."
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"code": "ar",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
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],
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ուրոբորոս"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "ōroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "օրոբորոս"
},
{
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"code": "az",
"lang": "Azerbaijani",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uròbor"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "銜尾蛇"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "xiánwěishé",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "衔尾蛇"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "úroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboro"
},
{
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"code": "et",
"lang": "Estonian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
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"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ouroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ouroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "gl",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uróboros"
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{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "de",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Uroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "el",
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"roman": "ourovóros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ουροβόρος"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "he",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "אורובורוס"
},
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"roman": "oroboros",
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"tags": [
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],
"word": "ओरोबोरोस"
},
{
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"code": "hu",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroborosz"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uroboro"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ウロボロス"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "uroboroseu",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "우로보로스"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
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{
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboras"
},
{
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"code": "ml",
"lang": "Malayalam",
"roman": "ūṟobōṟasŭ",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ഊറൊബോറസ്"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "اوروبروس"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "pt",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
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},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
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"masculine"
],
"word": "uroborus"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "es",
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "uróboros"
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"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
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"word": "ouroboros"
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{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "uk",
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"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"_dis1": "99 1",
"code": "ur",
"lang": "Urdu",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "اوروبورس"
}
]
},
{
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{
"ref": "2019 March 6, Soraya Roberts, “Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Like an ouroboros, the story created and informed by the writer’s own experience suddenly flipped back on itself, Childress’s life now reflecting the story rather than the other way around.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 4, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:",
"text": "The result is a statistical ouroboros: a self-reinforcing discrimination machine that amplifies social inequalities under the guise of technical neutrality.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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],
"id": "en-ouroboros-en-noun-xsQPfVL0",
"links": [
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"tags": [
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{
"ipa": "/uːˈrɒbəˌrɒs/"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌuːrəˈbɒrəs/"
},
{
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},
{
"enpr": "o͞o-rŏbʹə-rŏs"
},
{
"enpr": "o͞o-rə-bŏrʹ-əs"
}
],
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{
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"word": "uroboros"
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],
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"en:Culture",
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"t1": "tail",
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},
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"name": "af"
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"4": "",
"5": "tail-devouring",
"pos": "a compound of <i class=\"Polyt mention\" lang=\"grc\">οὐρά</i> (ourá, “tail”) + <i class=\"Polyt mention\" lang=\"grc\">-βόρος</i> (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb <i class=\"Polyt mention\" lang=\"grc\">βιβρώσκω</i> <span class=\"mention-gloss-paren annotation-paren\">(bibrṓskō, “to eat up”)</span>)"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”)))",
"name": "bor"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”))).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "ouroboroi",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "ouroboroses",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "ouroboroi",
"2": "+"
},
"expansion": "ouroboros (plural ouroboroi or ouroboroses)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "autocannibalism"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Mythological creatures"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1968 [1951], R. F. C. Hull, transl., Aion […] (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung), 2nd edition, volume 9.2, Princeton University Press, translation of original by C. G. Jung, →ISBN, page 264:",
"text": "The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 41:",
"text": "Khepera eating his own seed is a model of Romantic creativity, where the self is isolated and sexually dual. Khepera bent over himself is a uroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, a magic circle of regeneration and rebirth. The uroboros is the prehistoric track of natural cycle, from which Judaism and Hellenism make a conceptual break.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 121:",
"text": "One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge, →ISBN:",
"text": "First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death."
],
"links": [
[
"mythology",
"mythology"
],
[
"serpent",
"serpent"
],
[
"dragon",
"dragon"
],
[
"worm",
"worm"
],
[
"eat",
"eat"
],
[
"representation",
"representation"
],
[
"continuous",
"continuous"
],
[
"cycle",
"cycle"
],
[
"life",
"life"
],
[
"death",
"death"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(mythology) A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death."
],
"topics": [
"human-sciences",
"mysticism",
"mythology",
"philosophy",
"sciences"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2019 March 6, Soraya Roberts, “Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Like an ouroboros, the story created and informed by the writer’s own experience suddenly flipped back on itself, Childress’s life now reflecting the story rather than the other way around.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 4, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:",
"text": "The result is a statistical ouroboros: a self-reinforcing discrimination machine that amplifies social inequalities under the guise of technical neutrality.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Anything of a circular or recursive nature."
],
"links": [
[
"circular",
"circular"
],
[
"recursive",
"recursive"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) Anything of a circular or recursive nature."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/uːˈrɒbəˌrɒs/"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌuːrəˈbɒrəs/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ouroboros.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ec/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-ouroboros.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-ouroboros.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ec/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-ouroboros.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-ouroboros.wav.ogg"
},
{
"enpr": "o͞o-rŏbʹə-rŏs"
},
{
"enpr": "o͞o-rə-bŏrʹ-əs"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "uroboros"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "أوربوروس"
},
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ուրոբորոս"
},
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "ōroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "օրոբորոս"
},
{
"code": "az",
"lang": "Azerbaijani",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uròbor"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "銜尾蛇"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "xiánwěishé",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "衔尾蛇"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "úroboros"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboro"
},
{
"code": "et",
"lang": "Estonian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ouroboros"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ouroboros"
},
{
"code": "gl",
"lang": "Galician",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uróboros"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Uroboros"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "ourovóros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ουροβόρος"
},
{
"code": "he",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "אורובורוס"
},
{
"code": "hi",
"lang": "Hindi",
"roman": "oroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ओरोबोरोस"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroborosz"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uroboro"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ウロボロス"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "uroboroseu",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "우로보로스"
},
{
"code": "la",
"lang": "Latin",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ūroborus"
},
{
"code": "lt",
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboras"
},
{
"code": "ml",
"lang": "Malayalam",
"roman": "ūṟobōṟasŭ",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "ഊറൊബോറസ്"
},
{
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "اوروبروس"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uróboro"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uroborus"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "uroboros"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "uróboros"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "ouroboros"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "uroboros",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "уроборос"
},
{
"code": "ur",
"lang": "Urdu",
"sense": "a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail",
"word": "اوروبورس"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Synesius",
"Theodoros Pelecanos"
],
"word": "ouroboros"
}
Download raw JSONL data for ouroboros meaning in All languages combined (11.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.