Word.ws English Dictionary

Ascalaphus

Ascalaphus proper noun: the orchardist of Hades, changed into a screech-owl by Demeter for telling Hades that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds.

Proper noun

Ascalaphus

  1. (Greek) The orchardist of Hades, changed into a screech-owl by Demeter for telling Hades that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds

Origin of Ascalaphus

From Latin Ascalaphus, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκάλαφος (Askálaphos, literally “Screech-owl”).

Questions about Ascalaphus

What does Ascalaphus mean?
Ascalaphus means the orchardist of Hades, changed into a screech-owl by Demeter for telling Hades that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds.
What part of speech is Ascalaphus?
Ascalaphus is a proper noun.

Words near Ascalaphus in the dictionary

  1. ascal
  2. ascalabotan
  3. ascalabotans
  4. ascalaphid
  5. ascalaphids
  6. Ascalaphus
  7. Ascalon
  8. ascalonicoside
  9. ascandroside
  10. Ascanian
  11. Ascanius

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ascalaphus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Ascalaphus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ascalaphus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.