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Hyksos

Hyksos noun: a mixed group of Asiatic people from Western Asia who took over the eastern Nile Delta, ending the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt and initiating the Second Intermediate Period.

Noun

Hyksos pl (plural only)

  1. (historical, plural, plural-only) A mixed group of Asiatic people from Western Asia who took over the eastern Nile Delta, ending the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt and initiating the Second Intermediate Period.
    • But in the New Kingdom, after the invasion of the Hyksos in their horse-drawn chariots, the horse became a more powerful image.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 238

Forms of Hyksos

alternative formHycsos

Origin of Hyksos

From Ancient Greek Ὑκσώς (Huksṓs), Ὑξώς (Huxṓs), from Egyptian ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣst (“foreign ruler, Hyksos”), from ḥqꜣ (“ruler”) + ḫꜣst (“foreign land”).

Questions about Hyksos

What does Hyksos mean?
Hyksos means a mixed group of Asiatic people from Western Asia who took over the eastern Nile Delta, ending the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt and initiating the Second Intermediate Period.
What part of speech is Hyksos?
Hyksos is a noun.

Words near Hyksos in the dictionary

  1. HYIPs
  2. hyke
  3. Hykeham
  4. hykes
  5. Hykeses
  6. Hyksos
  7. hyl
  8. hyl-
  9. hyla
  10. hylaeochampsid
  11. hylaeochampsids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hyksos (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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