Word.ws English Dictionary

ephialtes

ephialtes noun: an incubus; a nightmare.

Noun

ephialtes (plural ephialtes)

  1. (obsolete) an incubus; a nightmare
    • Those that were asleep it [a spirit] terrified with horrible visions; those that were waking it would strike, pull, or press, lying heavy upon them like an Ephialtes: so that there were perpetuall complaints every morning of their last nights rest through the whole Town.1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 112

Proper noun capitalized: Ephialtes

Ephialtes

  1. An Athenian political figure who pioneered an early form of democracy.
  2. (Greek) Either of two Giants.

Forms of ephialtes

pluralephialtes

Origin of ephialtes

From Ancient Greek Ἐφιάλτης (Ephiáltēs).

Words formed from ephialtes

Questions about ephialtes

What does ephialtes mean?
Ephialtes means an incubus; a nightmare.
What part of speech is ephialtes?
Ephialtes can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of ephialtes?
The plural of ephialtes is ephialtes.

Words near ephialtes in the dictionary

  1. Ephesine
  2. ephesite
  3. Ephesos
  4. Ephesus
  5. ephi
  6. ephialtes
  7. ephialtoid
  8. ephidrosis
  9. Ephigenia
  10. ephippia
  11. ephippial

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ephialtes (page history and authors); Ephialtes (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:

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