Word.ws English Dictionary

chlamys

/ˈklamɪs/US/ˈklæmɪs/

chlamys noun: a short poncho-like cloak caught up on the shoulder, worn by hunters, soldiers, and horsemen in Ancient Greece.

Noun

chlamys (plural chlamyses or chlamydes)

  1. (historical) A short poncho-like cloak caught up on the shoulder, worn by hunters, soldiers, and horsemen in Ancient Greece.
    • He unfolded the chlamys, stretched it out with both hands before me, and then cast it over my shoulders.1824–1829, Walter Savage Landor, “Æsop and Rhosope”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […]
    • The horse was not in the least like a Greek horse (nor even a Trojan), and F.M. the Duke of Wellington was not represented with the ensis or short sword in his grasp, the chlamys flying from his shoulder, or the paludamentum, as more suitable for the cool of the English climate (totidem divisos...1847, “The Wellington Statue”, in The Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., London, page 523, column 2

Forms of chlamys

pluralchlamyses
pluralchlamydes

Origin of chlamys

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χλᾰμῠ́ς (khlămŭ́s).

Words formed from chlamys

Questions about chlamys

What does chlamys mean?
Chlamys means a short poncho-like cloak caught up on the shoulder, worn by hunters, soldiers, and horsemen in Ancient Greece.
What part of speech is chlamys?
Chlamys is a noun.
How do you pronounce chlamys?
Chlamys is pronounced /ˈklæmɪs/ (US).
What is the plural of chlamys?
The plural of chlamys is chlamyses.

Words near chlamys in the dictionary

  1. chlamydozoon
  2. chlamyopsin
  3. chlamyopsins
  4. chlamyphore
  5. chlamyphores
  6. chlamys
  7. chlamyses
  8. Chlark
  9. chleb
  10. chleuasmos
  11. Chleuh

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chlamys (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chlamys.wav.

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