Word.ws English Dictionary

Dionysus

/daɪ.əˈnaɪ.səs/

Dionysus proper noun: the god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".

dionysus: the god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the...
Image: Dwailgt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Dionysus

  1. (Greek) The god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".
    • DYSART: ... [Pause.] Then in the morning, I put away my books on the cultural shelf, close up the kodachrome snaps of Mount Olympus, touch my reproduction statue of Dionysus for luck—and go off to hospital to treat him for insanity. Do you see?1973, Peter Shaffer, “Act II, Scene 25”, in Equus, pages 81-2
    • All hail slain and risen God / All hail Dionysus / Come blessed Dionysus, various nam'd, bull-fac'd / Begot from the thunder, Bacchus fam'd2009, Behemoth, Daimonos

Forms of Dionysus

alternative formDionysos

Origin of Dionysus

Borrowed from Latin Dionȳsus, from Ancient Greek Διόνῡσος (Diónūsos).

Words formed from Dionysus

Words that rhyme with Dionysus

Questions about Dionysus

What does Dionysus mean?
Dionysus means the god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".
What part of speech is Dionysus?
Dionysus is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Dionysus?
Dionysus is pronounced /daɪ.əˈnaɪ.səs/.

Words near Dionysus in the dictionary

  1. Dionysians
  2. dionysias
  3. Dionysius
  4. Dionysoi
  5. Dionysos
  6. Dionysus
  7. Diop
  8. dioper
  9. dioperad
  10. dioperads
  11. diophantine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Dionysus (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Dionysus.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Dionysus.wav.

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