Word.ws English Dictionary

Cyrus

/ˈsaɪɹəs/

Cyrus proper noun: an ancient king of Persia, Cyrus the Great.

Proper noun (1)

Cyrus (plural Cyruses or (rare) Cyri)

  1. An ancient king of Persia, Cyrus the Great.
    • Thus ſayeth Cyꝛus the kynge of Perſia: The LORDE God of heauẽ hath geuen me all the kyngdomes in the londe and hath commaunded me to buylde him an houſe at Ieruſalem in Iuda.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Esdras [Ezra]...
    • Furthermore, the superlative formulation of Cyrus’ character (he possesses kallos, philanthrōpia, philomathia and philotimia to an outstanding degree) may be thought to make him a supremely successful leader, but also a unique and not so easily imitated one (how many Cyruses do you know? Can you be...2018, Luuk Huitink, “Xenophon”, in Koen De Temmerman, Evert van Emde Boas, editors, Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature (Mnemosyne Supplements: Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and...
  2. A male given name from Old Persian.
    • Cyrus] There were two Cyri the greater, meant here, Conqueror of Aſia, Scythia, and all the Eaſt, reigning in the time of Tarquin the proud. […] The other was Cyrus the leſſer, ſonne to Darius, brother to Artaxerxes, whoſe iourney into Perſia, Xenophon wrote. [marginal note:] The tvvo Cyri. […]...1610, Io[annes] Lod[ovicus] Viues, translated by I[ohn] H[ealey], Sᵗ. Augustine, of the Citie of God: With the Learned Comments of Io. Lod. Viues. […], [London]: […] George Eld, page 125 and index
    • At this passage the Behistun inscription does not enumerate the names of all the nine Achaemenians, but from an inscription Aššurbānapli to be dated to 639 B. C. we know that a certain Kuraš was the king of the country of Parsumaš at this time and this could be the grandfather of Cyrus «the Great»....1973, D. Hegyi, “Historical Authenticity of Herodotus in the Persian «Logoi»”, in Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, volume 21, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, →ISSN, pages 76–77
  3. A surname.

Proper noun (2)

the Cyrus

  1. The Kura river, as it is called in classical sources.
    • In the mountains near Suram is a watering-place called Burjan, to which the Imperial Lieutenant of the Caucasus retires in summer. The river Kur, the ancient Cyrus, takes its rise in that district.1868, “Route 20: London to Tiflis […] ”, in Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, page 321

Cyrus meaning in Hindi, Telugu, Arabic and Persian

Cyrus in Hindi

ancient king of Persia
कुरुश kuruś

Cyrus in Telugu

ancient king of Persia
కోరెషు kōreṣu

Cyrus in Arabic

ancient king of Persia
قُورَش qūraš

Cyrus in Persian

ancient king of Persia
کوروش kuroš
male given name
کورش kuroš, سیروس sirus

Examples of Cyrus in a sentence

  • C. we know that a certain Kuraš was the king of the country of Parsumaš at this time and this could be the grandfather of Cyrus «the Great».1973, D. Hegyi, “Historical Authenticity of Herodotus in the Persian «Logoi»”, in Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, volume 21...
  • Contrast Arrian’s statement that the camp belonged to the younger Cyrus (ii, 4.3).1980, J[ohn] E[dward] Atkinson, “Commentary on Book 3”, in A Commentary on Q. Curtius Rufus’ Historiae Alexandri Magni, Books 3 and 4...

Forms of Cyrus

pluralCyruses
plural (rare)Cyri

Origin of Cyrus

Borrowed from Latin Cȳrus, from Ancient Greek Κῦρος (Kûros), from Old Persian 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 (kuruš). As a saints' name it has been identified by folk etymology with Ancient Greek κύριος (kúrios, “lord”).

From Latin Cȳrus, from Ancient Greek Κῦρος (Kûros), perhaps from Urartian 𒆳𒄣𒊑𒀀𒉌 (ᴷᵁᴿqu-ri-a-ni /⁠Quriani⁠/), a land possibly in the upper reaches of the Kura river.

Words formed from Cyrus

Words that rhyme with Cyrus

Questions about Cyrus

What does Cyrus mean?
Cyrus means an ancient king of Persia, Cyrus the Great.
What is Cyrus in Hindi?
Cyrus in Hindi is कुरुश (kuruś). See Cyrus meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Cyrus in a sentence?
C. we know that a certain Kuraš was the king of the country of Parsumaš at this time and this could be the grandfather of Cyrus «the Great».
What part of speech is Cyrus?
Cyrus is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Cyrus?
Cyrus is pronounced /ˈsaɪɹəs/.

Words near Cyrus in the dictionary

  1. cyrtophorian
  2. cyrtophorians
  3. cyrtophorid
  4. cyrtophorids
  5. cyrtos
  6. Cyrus
  7. Cyruses
  8. Cyrus–Beck algorithm
  9. Cyryl
  10. cys
  11. cyser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cyrus (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-Cyrus.wav.

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