Word.ws English Dictionary

philomel

philomel noun: the nightingale.

Noun

philomel (plural philomels)

  1. (poetic) The nightingale.
    • As Philomel in summer's front doth sing.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet CII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
    • And lonely Philomel, still waking, sings.1713, Anne Finch, A Nocturnal Reverie
  2. A musical instrument similar to the violin, but having four steel-wire strings.

Proper noun capitalized: Philomel

Philomel

  1. (Greek, alternative) Alternative form of Philomela.
    • Above the antique mantel was displayed / As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene / The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king / So rudely forced; […]1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 19

Forms of philomel

pluralphilomels

Origin of philomel

From philo- + mel(os).

From Middle French Philomele, from Latin Philomela, from Ancient Greek Φιλομήλη (Philomḗlē). Doublet of Philomela.

Questions about philomel

What does philomel mean?
Philomel means the nightingale.
What part of speech is philomel?
Philomel can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of philomel?
The plural of philomel is philomels.

Words near philomel in the dictionary

  1. philomathematical
  2. philomathic
  3. philomathical
  4. philomaths
  5. philomathy
  6. philomel
  7. Philomela
  8. philomels
  9. Philomena
  10. philomene
  11. philomenes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: philomel (page history and authors); Philomel (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: “philomel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/philomel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.