Word.ws English Dictionary

Lysistrata

/laɪˈsɪstrətə/

Lysistrata proper noun: a comedy by Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, a comic account of one woman's (Lysistrata) extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by denying men sex.

Proper noun

Lysistrata

  1. A comedy by Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, a comic account of one woman's (Lysistrata) extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by denying men sex.
    • The authors have drawn to some extent on the Lysistrata to aid them, but have fallen as far short of the fun as of the indecency of that memorable play.1887, George Saintsbury, A History of Elizabethan Literature
    • The idea of a sex strike is as old as Aristophanes. Undoubtedly after a tiff with Mrs. Aristophanes, he wrote his “Lysistrata,” a comedy about wives who end the Peloponnesian War by resisting their husbands.1998 April 26, Jenny Lyn Bader, “Is Sex Necessary?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
  2. (uncommon) A female given name from Ancient Greek.
    • I drop the note on the floor and take another sheet and write "YES. Lysistrata Lee."1960 October, Pauline Ashwell, “The Lost Kafoozalum”, in Analog Science Fact & Fiction

Noun

Lysistrata (plural Lysistratas)

  1. A woman who withholds sex in order to get her way.
    • Lysistratas among the Indian [Iroquois] women proclaimed a boycott on lovemaking and childbearing.1993, Jane Caputi, quoting Stan Steiner, Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth, page 225
    • Despite all this, the Western media framed these women as modern-day Lysistratas.2020, Helen Morales, Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths

Examples of Lysistrata in a sentence

  • Also, unlike in “Lysistrata,” the sex strike doesn’t work.2024 April 17, Eric Grode, quoting Bekah Brunstetter, “Video Games Are a Playwright’s Muse, Not Her Hobby”, in The New York Times, New...
  • Making sex a quid for some quo can be, as in “Lysistrata,” a dramatic strategy, but it probably isn’t the best one.2025 February 5, Kwame Anthony Appiah, “Is It OK That I’m Withholding Sex Until My Husband Sorts Out His Invoices?”, in The New York Times...
  • Seeing our sexual culture through this data, one might think we are at war, and Lysistrata a real person.2025 September 30, Suzy Exposito, “I don’t like dating apps – I went to a ‘flirting party’ instead”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms of Lysistrata

pluralLysistratas

Origin of Lysistrata

From Ancient Greek Λυσιστράτη (Lusistrátē, “army disbander”).

Words formed from Lysistrata

Questions about Lysistrata

What does Lysistrata mean?
Lysistrata means a comedy by Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, a comic account of one woman's (Lysistrata) extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by denying men sex.
How do you use Lysistrata in a sentence?
Also, unlike in “Lysistrata,” the sex strike doesn’t work.
What part of speech is Lysistrata?
Lysistrata can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Lysistrata?
Lysistrata is pronounced /laɪˈsɪstrətə/.

Words near Lysistrata in the dictionary

  1. lysiosquillids
  2. lysiosquilloid
  3. lysiosquilloids
  4. lysis
  5. lysised
  6. Lysistrata
  7. Lysistratan
  8. Lysistratas
  9. Lysithea
  10. Lysithean
  11. Lysivka

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Lysistrata (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)-Vealhurl-Lysistrata.wav.

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