Word.ws English Dictionary

Avernus

Avernus proper noun: the entrance to Hell or the underworld, or the underworld itself.

Proper noun

Avernus

  1. The entrance to Hell or the underworld, or the underworld itself.
    • His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
      As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
      Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
      To pull the triple headed dog from hell.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  2. A lake in Southern Italy.
    • I perceive the Lake Avernus, an extinguished volcano, whose waves once inspired terror.1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[[Book XIII. Vesuvius and the plain of Naples.] Chap[ter] IV.] The extempore effusion of Corinna on the Plain of Naples.”, in...

Origin of Avernus

From Latin Avernus, from Ancient Greek ἄορνος (áornos), ἄϝορνος (áwornos, “birdless”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”). The lack of birds was likely due to fatal gases like carbon dioxide seeping from the volcanically active lake.

Questions about Avernus

What does Avernus mean?
Avernus means the entrance to Hell or the underworld, or the underworld itself.
What part of speech is Avernus?
Avernus is a proper noun.

Words near Avernus in the dictionary

  1. averment
  2. averments
  3. Avernal
  4. Averni
  5. Avernian
  6. Avernus
  7. averos
  8. averot
  9. averoth
  10. averpennies
  11. averpenny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Avernus (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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