Word.ws English Dictionary

lamia

UK/ˈleɪmɪə//ˈleɪ.mi.ə/

lamia noun: a monster preying upon human beings, who sucked the blood of children, often described as having the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent.

Noun

lamia (plural lamias or lamiae)

  1. (Greek) A monster preying upon human beings, who sucked the blood of children, often described as having the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent.
    • Coordinate term: naga
    • Apollonius […] by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus' gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III...
    Synonyms:
    vampire

Proper noun capitalized: Lamia

Lamia

  1. A city in Greece.

lamia meaning in Tamil and Marathi

lamia in Tamil

தகடு

lamia in Marathi

monster in mythology
लामिया lāmiyā

Synonyms of lamia

Forms of lamia

plurallamias
plurallamiae

Origin of lamia

From Latin lamia, from Ancient Greek Λάμια (Lámia).

Questions about lamia

What does lamia mean?
Lamia means a monster preying upon human beings, who sucked the blood of children, often described as having the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent.
What is lamia in Tamil?
Lamia in Tamil is தகடு. See Lamia meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lamia?
Lamia can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lamia?
Lamia is pronounced /ˈleɪmɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of lamia?
The plural of lamia is lamias.

Words near lamia in the dictionary

  1. lamewad
  2. lamewads
  3. Lamey
  4. Lameys
  5. Lamgong
  6. lamia
  7. lamiaceous
  8. lamiae
  9. lamian
  10. lamias
  11. lamibe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lamia (page history and authors); Lamia (page history and authors); lamia (Tamil 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-lamia.wav.

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