myth

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• mythe (rare or archaic)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μῦθος (mûthos, “word, humour, companion, speech, account, rumour, fable”). English since 1830.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪθ

Noun

myth (plural myths)

1. A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
2. (uncountable) Such stories as a genre.

   Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings. (E. Clodd, Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)

3. A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
4. A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend

   Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)

5. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
   • Ld. Lytton

     As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.

Related terms

• mythic
• mythical
• mythicize
• mythologem
• mythological
• mythology
• mythopoeia
• mythopoeic
• mythopoesis
• mythos
• pseudomyth

Translations

divine story

• Afrikaans: mite
• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: اسطورة f (Ustuura)
• Armenian: առասպել (hy) (aṙaspel)
• Basque: mito
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: mite (ca) m, mites pl
• Czech: mýtus (cs) m
• Danish: myte (da) c
• Dutch: mythe (nl) f, m
• Esperanto: mito (eo)
• Estonian: müüt
• Faroese: frumsøgn f, gudasøgn f, myta f, mýta f
• Finnish: myytti (fi), kertomus (fi)
• French: mythe (fr)
• Georgian: თქმულება (t’k’muleba), მითი (mit’i), ლეგენდა (legenda)
• German: Mythos (de) m
• Greek: μύθος (el) m (mýthos)

  Ancient: μῦθος m

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: מיתוס (he)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: rege (hu)
• Icelandic: saga (is) f, uppspuni m
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: miotas m
• Italian: mito (it) m
• Japanese: 神話 (ja) (しんわ, shinwa)

• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: ទេវកថា (km) (teivea’ ka’tʰaa)
• Korean: 신화 (ko) (sinhwa)
• Latvian: mīts m
• Lithuanian: mitas (lt) m
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: mitos
• Maori: pūrākau
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: myte m

  Nynorsk: myte m

• Persian: افسانه (fa) (afsâneh)
• Polish: mit (pl) m
• Portuguese: mito (pt)
• Romanian: mit (ro) n, legendă (ro) f
• Russian: миф (ru) m (mif)
• Scottish Gaelic: fionnsgeul m
• Serbo-Croatian: mȋt m
• Slovak: mýtus m
• Sotho: tshomo
• Spanish: mito (es) m
• Swedish: myt (sv) c
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: mit (tr), söylence (tr), efsane (tr)
• Turkmen: mif
• Ukrainian: міф m (mif)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can

commonly-held but false belief

• Dutch: mythe (nl) f, m
• Esperanto: mito (eo)
• Finnish: myytti (fi), uskomus (fi)
• Galician: mito (gl) m
• Georgian: მითი (mit’i)
• German: Mythos (de) m
• Greek: μύθος (el) m (mýthos)
• Icelandic: skröksaga f
• Italian: mito (it) m
• Japanese: 神話 (ja) (しんわ, shinwa)

• Latin: mythos m, fabula (la) f
• Latvian: mīts m
• Lithuanian: mitas (lt) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: myte m

  Nynorsk: myte m

• Portuguese: mito (pt)
• Russian: миф (ru) m (mif)
• Serbo-Croatian: mȋt m
• Swedish: myt (sv) c
• Ukrainian: повір'я n (povírja), легенда (uk) f (lehénda)

See also

• legend

External links

• myth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• myth in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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Welsh

Noun

myth

1. Nasal mutation of byth.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
byth	fyth	myth	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.