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''dryad'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260202202216-00-⌔

dryad - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

dryad (plural dryads)

  • (Greek mythology) A female tree spirit.
    • ✤ Hyponyms: Daphne, hamadryad
    • ✤ Coordinate term: Meliai
    • ✤ There it had stood for years, close beside a mighty oak, under which sat often the kindly old priest, who told stories to the listening children. The young chestnut tree listened with them: the Dryad inside it, who was still a child, could remember the time when the tree was so small that it only reached a little higher than the ferns and long blades of grass.1
  • mountain avens, dryas

Etymology

From Old French driade (“wood nymph”), from Latin Dryas, Dryadis, from Ancient Greek Δρυάς (Druás, “dryad”), from δρῦς (drûs, “oak”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡derew(o)- (“tree, wood”); cf. Proto-Indo-European ﹡dóru (“tree”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈdɹaɪəd/, /ˈdɹaɪˌæd/
  • Audio (US);/dɹaɪæd/: 🔊
  • Rhymes: -aɪəd, -aɪæd

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1914, Hans Christian Andersen, “The Dryad”, in William Alexander Craigie, transl., Fairy tales and other stories: ↩

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