Word.ws English Dictionary

orthian

orthian adjective: denoting a type of singing at a very high pitch.

Adjective

orthian (comparative more orthian, superlative most orthian)

  1. Denoting a type of singing at a very high pitch.
    • [W]hen he used to hear his empress singing the loud Orthyan song among the servants below, he would often in whispers communicate to the lieutenant, hints of what he would do if so be he was not deprived of the use of his precious limbs.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

Forms of orthian

comparativemore orthian
superlativemost orthian
alternative formOrthyan

Origin of orthian

From Ancient Greek ὄρθιος (órthios, “high-pitched, upright”), from ὀρθός (orthós, “straight”).

Questions about orthian

What does orthian mean?
Orthian means denoting a type of singing at a very high pitch.
What part of speech is orthian?
Orthian is an adjective.

Words near orthian in the dictionary

  1. ortheses
  2. orthesis
  3. Orthez
  4. ortheziid
  5. ortheziids
  6. orthian
  7. orthic
  8. orthicon
  9. orthiconoscope
  10. orthiconoscopes
  11. orthicons

Source and license

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