Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A cross shaped like a T with a loop at the top, especially as used in ancient Egypt as a symbol of life. Also called ansate cross.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Egyptian art, the emblem of enduring life, or symbol of generation, generally represented as held in the hand of a deity, and often conferred upon royal favorites. It is the crux ansata (which see, under crux).
Wiktionary
- n. A cross shaped like a T with a loop at the top, the Egyptian hieroglyph representing the Egyptian triliteral ˁ-n-ḫ ("eternal life") and often used as an amulet or charm for this concept.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Egypt. Archæol.) A tau cross with a loop at the top, used as an attribute or sacred emblem, symbolizing generation or enduring life. Called also
crux ansata . - n. an amulet or piece of jewelry shaped like an ankh{1}.
Etymologies
- From Egyptian (Wiktionary)
- Egyptian 'nḫ, life. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Egyptian symbol of the ankh is a knot, which represents life.”
The Huffington Post: Donna Henes: Connecting To The World Wide Web Of Life
“At my first duty station, I had the Egyptian symbol for eternal life, called an ankh, tattooed on the back of my left shoulder.”
“You know im a pisces like the queen! that's my girl, Ms. Badu … love the song! it might have been two years since the last album, but it seemed like eternity. the ankh is a symbol for eternal life …”
“Also I think that maybe since the ankh is a symbol of female fertility and the statue had an ankh that once the statue is destroyed like we know happens and only a four-toed foot remains that causes the deaths during childbirth.”
“The ankh is the Egyptian symbol for eternal life and was the necklace Amy took off Paul.”
“These were now scattered at random, but my trained eye immediately fell on an "ankh" sign shaped from lapis and a tiny turquoise chick, which represented the sound "u" or "w.”
The Curse of the Pharaohs
“Summer’s dad had said the ankh was an Egyptian life symbol that kept away bad luck.”
“He is ram-headed, and holds in his hand the "ankh," or emblem of life. 1 Another new acquaintance is”
“The Soul, grasping in one hand a little sail, the emblem of breath, in the other hand the "ankh," or emblem of Life, hovers over the face of the corpse.”
“* In some scenes, the united "ankh" and Ka become the head and arms of a tiny figure which holds a parasol or feather-fan outstretched towards the King.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ankh’.
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What the H?
Words that I could probably spell correctly without having to look them up every single damn time were it not for an apparently extraneous and randomly placed h.
jodhpur, diarrhea, ankh, myrrh, hemorrhoids, baghdad, rhombus, rhythm, hemorrhage, sheikh, catarrh, maharajah and 21 more...
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Onk-tastic
Words containing the sound /ŏngk/.
Algonquin, Cronkite, Tonka, Tonkin, Wonka, Yonkers, bonk, bonkers, bronco, broncobuster, conk, conker and 53 more...
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The Red Pyramid
SAS Gr. 7 EAL Book Read
amulet, relic, hieroglyphics, decipher, ominous, curator, boomerang, vague, agitated, obelisk, linger, hereditary and 37 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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Life is just a four-letter word
Everyone's got their favorites. Here are some of mine.
snit, hobo, minx, kiln, loll, pelf, yegg, ugly, bumf, brio, biro, haha and 92 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
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JJMARLETTE's Words
phantasmagorical, antidisestablishm..., gargantuan, apocryphal, maim, disembowel, viscous, apothecary, seminal, exponential, googol, googolplex and 90 more...
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Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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RabidCow's Words
piledrive, schism, poignant, garrote, reflex, fortitude, constitution, dexterity, charisma, nemesis, machiavellian, poop and 128 more...
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The Red Pyramid
amulet, relic, hieroglyphics, decipher, ominous, curator, boomerang, vague, agitated, obelisk, linger, hereditary and 32 more...
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Michael Critz List
I like words. Mostly so I can use them as weapons.
morgue, devil, agnostic, gaze, cru, tonneaus, idly, ankh, ankle, halon, epode, fumy and 54 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ankh.
johnmperry An Egyptian religious device, rather like a cross, but with a loop top. Unicode character U2625 doesn't render on my browser. Jun 20, 2008
bilby "'Sure,' said Hardin. He had a sudden thought. 'Does Biggie still wear the ankh?'
'The what?'
'The ankh.' He sketched it on the back of the menu.
'Yeah, he still wears that thing. Didn't know it had a name. It should be valuable.'"
- 'Windfall', Desmond Bagley. Jan 6, 2008