Word.ws English Dictionary

pithos

pithos noun: a large ceramic jar used by certain ancient civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean.

pithos: a large ceramic jar used by certain ancient civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean
Image: Zde, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pithos (plural pithoi)

  1. (historical) A large ceramic jar used by certain ancient civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean.
    • Pithos grave. The body was laid out in three pithoi, the easternmost and smallest (diam. ·40 m.) containing the skull, the middle pithos (diam. ·50 m.) containing arm bones and ribs; and the westernmost and largest (diam. ·76 m., see pl. 1) the leg bones.1934, P. N. Ure, Reading University Studies: Aryballoi & Figurines from Rhitsona in Boeotia, Paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, page 10
    • Xenophon, Plato's contemporary, remarks that he finds pitiable those persons who, according to tradition, pour water into a perforated pithos, since they labor in vain.2002, William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread, Cornell University Press, page 71

Forms of pithos

pluralpithoi

Origin of pithos

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πίθος (píthos).

Questions about pithos

What does pithos mean?
Pithos means a large ceramic jar used by certain ancient civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean.
What part of speech is pithos?
Pithos is a noun.
What is the plural of pithos?
The plural of pithos is pithoi.

Words near pithos in the dictionary

  1. Pithoegia
  2. pithoi
  3. Pithoigia
  4. pithomycolide
  5. Pithoragarh
  6. pithos
  7. pithouse
  8. pithouses
  9. pithovirus
  10. pithoviruses
  11. piths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pithos (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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