Word.ws English Dictionary

Phaedra

Syllables: Phae·dra/ˈfiːdɹə/

Phaedra proper noun: the wife of Theseus, who falls in love with but is spurned by her stepson Hippolytus, then commits suicide, but is the cause of his later death (details vary between versions).

Proper noun

Phaedra

  1. (Greek) The wife of Theseus, who falls in love with but is spurned by her stepson Hippolytus, then commits suicide, but is the cause of his later death (details vary between versions).
    • We notice that Racine's Phaedra, like Euripides', displays high moral dignity because she considers her passion for Hippolytus to be abominable.1981, Normand Berlin, The Secret Cause: A Discussion of Tragedy, page 46
    • Why did Seneca decide to postpone his own Phaedra’s suicide until after Hippolytus' death? The question is by no means as futile as it may sound.1993, Albert S. Gérard, The Phaedra Syndrome: Of Shame and Guilt in Drama, page 20
  2. (rare) A female given name from Ancient Greek.
  3. The asteroid 174 Phaedra.

Origin of Phaedra

From Latin Phaedra, from Ancient Greek Φαίδρᾱ (Phaídrā). The myth has been retold several times, in plays (in classical times in Euripides's Hippolytus and Seneca the Younger's Phaedra, later in Racine's Phèdre), and more recently in other media.

Words formed from Phaedra

Questions about Phaedra

What does Phaedra mean?
Phaedra means the wife of Theseus, who falls in love with but is spurned by her stepson Hippolytus, then commits suicide, but is the cause of his later death (details vary between versions).
What part of speech is Phaedra?
Phaedra is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Phaedra?
Phaedra is pronounced /ˈfiːdɹə/.

Words near Phaedra in the dictionary

  1. Phaeacia
  2. Phaeacian
  3. Phaeacians
  4. Phaedo
  5. Phaedon
  6. Phaedra
  7. Phaedra complex
  8. Phaedran
  9. Phaedriades
  10. Phaedrian
  11. Phaedrus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Phaedra (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-Phaedra.wav.

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