myth

English

Alternative forms

• mythe (rare or archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɪθ/

• 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.
   • 2016, John Oliver, “Opiods”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 27, written by Tim Carvell; Josh Gondelman; Dan Gurewitch; Jeff Maurer; Ben Silva; Will Tracy; Jill Twiss; Seena Vali; Julie Weiner, HBO, Warner Bros. Television:

     Okay, okay, okay… First, of course, babies feel pain. How the fuck did we ever think otherwise⁉ But more importantly, the fact that painkillers are addictive was not a myth. It’s like a book of Greek mythology featuring the stories of Zeus, Sisyphus, Oedipus and Yanni. Come on! That last one is very real and it cannot be dismissed.

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
• mythify
• mythologem
• mythological
• mythology
• mythopoeia
• mythopoeic
• mythopoesis
• mythos
• pseudomyth

Translations

divine story

• Afrikaans: mite
• Albanian: mit (sq) m
• Arabic: أُسْطُورَة‎ f (ʾusṭūra)
• Armenian: առասպել (hy) (aṙaspel)
• Azerbaijani: mif, əfsanə (az), əsatir
• Basque: mito
• Belarusian: міф m (mif)
• Bengali: শ্রুতি (śruti)
• Bulgarian: мит (bg) m (mit)
• Burmese: ဒဏ္ဍာရီ (my) (dandari)
• Catalan: mite (ca) m, mites (ca) pl
• Central Sierra Miwok: ˀútne-
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 神話 (zh), 神话 (zh) (shénhuà)

• Czech: mýtus (cs) m
• Danish: myte (da) c
• Dutch: mythe (nl) f or m
• Erzya: пазъёвкс (pazʺjovks)
• Esperanto: mito (eo)
• Estonian: müüt
• Faroese: frumsøgn f, gudasøgn f, myta f, mýta f
• Finnish: myytti (fi), jumalaistaru
• French: mythe (fr)
• Galician: mito (gl) m
• Georgian: თქმულება (tkmuleba), მითი (miti), ლეგენდა (legenda)
• German: Mythos (de) m
• Greek: μύθος (el) m (mýthos)

  Ancient: μῦθος m (mûthos)

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: מִיתוֹס‎ (he) m (mitos)
• Hindi: मिथक m (mithak)
• Hungarian: rege (hu)
• Icelandic: saga (is) f, uppspuni m
• Ido: mito (io)
• Indonesian: mitos (id)
• Irish: miotas m
• Italian: mito (it) m
• Japanese: 神話 (ja) (しんわ, shinwa)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: аңыз (kk) (añız), миф (mïf)
• Khmer: ទេវកថា (km) (teivĕəʾ kaʾthaa)
• Korean: 신화 (ko) (sinhwa)

• Kyrgyz: уламыш (ky) (ulamış), миф (mif)
• Lao: ຕຳນານ (lo) (tam nān)
• Latin: mythos
• Latvian: mīts m
• Lithuanian: mitas (lt) m
• Macedonian: мит m (mit)
• Malay: mitos
• Maori: pūrākau
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: домог (mn) (domog)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: myte m

  Nynorsk: myte m

• Pashto: اسطوره‎ (asturá), افسانه‎ (ps) f (afsāná)
• Persian: اسطوره‎ (fa) (osture), افسانه‎ (fa) (afsâne)
• 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:

  Cyrillic: ми̑т m

  Roman: mȋt (sh) m

• Slovak: mýtus m
• Slovene: mit (sl) m
• Sotho: tshomo
• Spanish: mito (es) m
• Swedish: myt (sv) c
• Tajik: афсона (tg) (afsona), ривоят (tg) (rivoyat)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: ตำนาน (th) (dtam-naan)
• Turkish: mit (tr), söylence (tr), efsane (tr), tansık (tr)
• Turkmen: mif, rowaýat
• Ukrainian: міф m (mif)
• Urdu: متک‎ m (mitak)
• Uyghur: ئەپسانە‎ (epsane), رىۋايەت‎ (riwayet)
• Uzbek: afsona (uz), mif (uz)
• Vietnamese: thần thoại (vi)
• Welsh: chwedl (cy) f, myth (cy) m
• Yiddish: מיטאָס‎ m (mitos)

such stories as genre

• Finnish: jumalaistarusto

commonly-held but false belief

• Dutch: mythe (nl) f or m
• Esperanto: mito (eo)
• Finnish: myytti (fi), uskomus (fi)
• Galician: mito (gl) m
• Georgian: მითი (miti)
• German: Mythos (de) m
• Greek: μύθος (el) m (mýthos)
• Hebrew: מיתוס‎ (he) m
• 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), пове́рье (ru) n (povérʹje), леге́нда (ru) f (legénda)
• Serbo-Croatian: mȋt (sh) m
• Swedish: myt (sv) c
• Ukrainian: міф m (mif), пові́р'я n (povírʺja), леге́нда (uk) f (lehénda)

person or thing held in excessive awe or admiration

• Finnish: myytti (fi)

person or thing existing only in imagination

• Finnish: myytti (fi)

See also

• legend

Further reading

• myth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• myth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "myth" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 210.

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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.