Word.ws English Dictionary

Hesperides

/hɛˈspɛɹɪdiːz/

Hesperides noun: a group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far western corner of the world, located in Libya or the Atlas Mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus; they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus.

hesperides: a group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far...
Image: Cornelis van Haarlem, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Hesperides pl (plural only)

  1. (Greek, plural, plural-only) A group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far western corner of the world, located in Libya or the Atlas Mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus; they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus.
  2. (Greek, plural, plural-only) The garden of the Hesperides.
  3. (figuratively, plural, plural-only) A paradisaical land of plenty, especially one in the far West.
    • Inclinations no leſs vigorous have of late been obſerved in Europe, but with more ſucceſs; who not being bounded by Herculean Bars, paſt ſo far through (till then) the unmeaſured Atlantick, that they lighted upon a new World, a flouriſhing Heſperides, Regions whoſe Sands were Gold, Earth Plate, and...1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, →OCLC, page 2

Origin of Hesperides

From Latin Hesperides, from Ancient Greek Ἑσπερίδες (Hesperídes).

Words formed from Hesperides

Questions about Hesperides

What does Hesperides mean?
Hesperides means a group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far western corner of the world, located in Libya or the Atlas Mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus; they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus.
What part of speech is Hesperides?
Hesperides is a noun.
How do you pronounce Hesperides?
Hesperides is pronounced /hɛˈspɛɹɪdiːz/.

Words near Hesperides in the dictionary

  1. Hesperian epoch
  2. hesperians
  3. Hesperid
  4. Hesperidean
  5. hesperidene
  6. Hesperides
  7. hesperidia
  8. Hesperidian
  9. hesperidin
  10. hesperidins
  11. hesperidium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hesperides (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)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Hesperides.wav.

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