Word.ws English Dictionary

pygmalion

/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/

pygmalion noun: one who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).

Noun (1)

pygmalion (plural pygmalions)

  1. One who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).

Proper noun capitalized: Pygmalion

Pygmalion

  1. (Greek) A legendary sculptor who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with.
    • It dawned on me that they [Anthropic] were under a kind of enchantment. Like Pygmalion, they had fallen in love with their own creation.2026 July 25, Carmody Grey, “AI’s quest for morality”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

Noun (2) capitalized: Pygmalion

Pygmalion (plural Pygmalions)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of pygmalion (“one who acts in a way reminiscent of the sculptor”).

Forms of pygmalion

pluralpygmalions
pluralPygmalions

Origin of pygmalion

From Pygmalion, from Ancient Greek Πυγμαλίων (Pugmalíōn), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pʿmytn /⁠puġ‘mayaton⁠/), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pmyytn /⁠pumayyaton⁠/, “Pumay has given”), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉 (pmy, “Pumay”) + Phoenician 𐤉𐤕𐤍 (ytn /⁠yaton⁠/, “to give”).

From Ancient Greek Πυγμαλίων (Pugmalíōn), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pʿmytn /⁠puġ‘mayaton⁠/), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pmyytn /⁠pumayyaton⁠/, “Pumay has given”), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉 (pmy, “Pumay”) + Phoenician 𐤉𐤕𐤍 (ytn /⁠yaton⁠/, “to give”).

Words formed from pygmalion

Phrases with pygmalion

Questions about pygmalion

What does pygmalion mean?
Pygmalion means one who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).
What part of speech is pygmalion?
Pygmalion can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pygmalion?
Pygmalion is pronounced /pɪɡˈmeɪliən/.
What is the plural of pygmalion?
The plural of pygmalion is pygmalions.

Words near pygmalion in the dictionary

  1. pygidicranid
  2. pygidicranids
  3. pygidium
  4. pygidiums
  5. pygmaean
  6. pygmalion
  7. Pygmalion effect
  8. Pygmalion effects
  9. Pygmalion word
  10. Pygmalionesque
  11. Pygmalionic

Source and license

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