eureka

See also: Eureka and eurêka

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /jəˈɹiː.kə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /jʊˈɹiː.kə/
• Rhymes: -iːkə

Interjection

eureka!

1. An exclamation indicating a sudden discovery.
   • 1821, Byron, Don Juan:

     Eureka! I have found it! What I mean / To say is, not that love is idleness, / But that in love such idleness has been / An accessory, as I have cause to guess.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. "Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved."

   • 1970, Peter Porter, The Sanitized Sonnets, The Last of England:

     A page is turned - eureka, a snatch of tune / is playing itself, the piss-proud syllables / are unveiling a difficult prosody.

Derived terms

• eureka effect
• eureka moment

Translations

exclamation indicating sudden discovery

• Albanian: eureka, e gjeta, aha (sq)
• Belarusian: э́ўрыка (éwryka)
• Bulgarian: е́врика (évrika)
• Catalan: eureka (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 尤里卡 (yóulǐkǎ), 我發現了！ / 我发现了！ (Wǒ fāxiàn le!), 我找到了！ (Wǒ zhǎo dào le!)

• Czech: heuréka
• Danish: heureka (da)
• Finnish: heureka (fi)
• French: eurêka (fr)
• German: heureka (de)
• Greek: εύρηκα (el) (évrika)
• Hungarian: heuréka (hu)
• Icelandic: það tókst, þar kom það, ég hef fundið það
• Italian: eureka
• Japanese: 我発見せり (ware hakken seri); わかった (wakatta); 見つけた (mitsuketa); ユーレカ (yūreka); エウレカ (eureka)
• Macedonian: еуре́ка (euréka), е́врека (évreka)
• Malayalam: യുറീക്ക (yuṟīkka)
• Persian: یافتم (yâftam)
• Polish: eureka (pl), heureka (pl)
• Portuguese: heureca (pt), eureca (pt)
• Romanian: evrica (ro)
• Russian: э́врика (ru) (évrika)
• Spanish: eureka (es)
• Swedish: heureka (sv), eureka (sv)
• Turkish: evreka, buldum (tr)
• Ukrainian: е́врика (évryka)
• Vietnamese: ơ-rê-ca

Noun

eureka (uncountable)

1. Synonym of constantan (“copper-nickel alloy”).

See also

• aha moment
• epiphany

Dutch

Alternative forms

• heureka

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative 1st singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌœy̯ˈreːkaː/, /øːˈreːkaː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: eu‧re‧ka

Interjection

eureka

1. eureka

Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative 1st singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find”).

Interjection

eureka

1. eureka

Further reading

• “eureka”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκᾰ (heúrēkă).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛw.re.ka/
• Rhymes: -ɛwreka
• Hyphenation: èu‧re‧ka

Interjection

eureka

1. eureka

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka). Doublet of heureka.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛwˈrɛ.ka/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛka
• Syllabification: eu‧re‧ka
• Homophone: Eureka

Interjection

eureka

1. eureka (exclamation indicating a sudden discovery)

   Synonym: heureka

Further reading

• eureka in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• eureka in PWN's encyclopedia

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /euˈɾeka/ [eu̯ˈɾe.ka]
• Rhymes: -eka
• Syllabification: eu‧re‧ka

Interjection

eureka

1. eureka

Further reading

• “eureka”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025