Word.ws English Dictionary

harpy

Syllables: har·py/ˈhɑːpi/US/ˈhɑɹpi/

harpy noun: a mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale with hunger and long claws on her hands personifying the destructive power of storm winds.

harpy: a mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale...
Image: Melchior Lorck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

harpy (plural harpies)

  1. A mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale with hunger and long claws on her hands personifying the destructive power of storm winds.
    • Both table and provisions vanish'd quite,
      With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard.1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC
  2. (derogatory) A shrewish woman.
    • But her most subtle wiles proved ineffectual in ridding her, even for a moment, of her harpy jailer[…]1927, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Outlaw of Torn, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008
    • […] Ed Miliband has yet to come up with a definition of “the squeezed middle” that excludes anyone, but you can bet your bottom dollar he has these laptop-wielding harpies in mind.2011 March 17, Toby Young, “Mumsnet isn't representative of the 'squeezed middle'. It's just a bunch of Guardian-reading, laptop-wielding harpies”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 20...
  3. One who is rapacious or ravenous; an extortioner.
    • The harpies about me all pocket the pool.c. 1772, Oliver Goldsmith, letter to Mrs. Bunbury
  4. Any of a number of eagle-like birds of prey of the subfamily Harpiinae, especially the species Harpia harpyja.
  5. The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus).

harpy meaning in Tamil and Kannada

harpy in Tamil

கடுகடுப்பான, திட்டும் குணமுடையவள், கீழ்மகள், சண்டைக்காரி

harpy in Kannada

ಪೆರ‍್ಬಯಕೆಯ, ಕಟ್ಟೆಳಸಿನ, ಹಕ್ಕಿಯ ರೆಕ್ಕೆಗಳೂ ಮೊನೆಯುಗುರುಗಳೂ ಉಳ್ಳ, ಧ್ವಂಸಕ, ಹಿಂಸಕ, ಸುಲಿಗೆಗಾರ

Synonyms of harpy

12 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of harpy

Forms of harpy

pluralharpies

Plural of harpy: harpies

Origin of harpy

Ultimately from Middle French harpie, from Latin harpyia, from Ancient Greek ἅρπυιᾰ (hárpuiă, literally “snatcher”), from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch, seize”). Compare rapacious. Middle English had arpie.

Words formed from harpy

Phrases with harpy

Words that rhyme with harpy

Questions about harpy

What does harpy mean?
Harpy means a mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale with hunger and long claws on her hands personifying the destructive power of storm winds.
What is harpy in Tamil?
Harpy in Tamil is கடுகடுப்பான, திட்டும் குணமுடையவள், கீழ்மகள். See Harpy meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is harpy?
Harpy is a noun.
How do you pronounce harpy?
Harpy is pronounced /ˈhɑɹpi/ (US).
What is the plural of harpy?
The plural of harpy is harpies.

Words near harpy in the dictionary

  1. Harpswell
  2. Harptree
  3. Harpur
  4. Harpurhey
  5. Harput
  6. harpy
  7. harpy bat
  8. harpy bats
  9. harpy eagle
  10. harpy eagles
  11. harpyish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: harpy (page history and authors); harpy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); harpy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-harpy.wav.

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