hetaera

/hɪˈtɪəɹə/

hetaera noun: a highly cultivated hired female companion who would entertain upper-class male clients and might perform sex acts for them.

Image: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hetaera (plural hetaerae or hetaeras)

(historical, Ancient Greece) A highly cultivated hired female companion who would entertain upper-class male clients and might perform sex acts for them.
- But of course our friend is only a shallow twentieth-century reproduction of the great hetairae of the past, the type to which she belongs without knowing it, Lais, Charis and the rest...1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine
A mistress.
- Woman is dethroned as the primary and supreme sex, debased into inseminable hetaera.1971, Gottfried Benn, E. B. Ashton, Primal vision: selected writings
- Christ appeared, only to reveal himself as the naked god Pan. Ballet of hetaerae and houris, choreography by Italo Castaldi.1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers

ಸೂಳೆ, ವೇಶ್ಯೆ, ವಾರಾಂಗನೆ, ಬೆಲೆವೆಣ್ಣು, ಉಪಪತ್ನಿ, ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡವಳು

From Ancient Greek ἑταίρᾱ (hetaírā), feminine of ἑταῖρος (hetaîros, “companion”).

What does hetaera mean?: Hetaera means a highly cultivated hired female companion who would entertain upper-class male clients and might perform sex acts for them.
What is hetaera in Kannada?: Hetaera in Kannada is ಸೂಳೆ, ವೇಶ್ಯೆ, ವಾರಾಂಗನೆ. See Hetaera meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is hetaera?: Hetaera is a noun.
How do you pronounce hetaera?: Hetaera is pronounced /hɪˈtɪəɹə/.
What is the plural of hetaera?: The plural of hetaera is hetaerae.

Adapted from Wiktionary: hetaera (page history and authors); hetaera (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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