Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Tragic flaw.
Wiktionary
- n. The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy.
- n. Christian theology : sin
WordNet 3.0
- n. the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ἁμαρτία (hamartia), meaning error or failure. From the verb ἁμαρτάνω hamartanō, "to miss the mark". (Wiktionary)
- Greek, from hamartanein, to miss the mark, err. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It was for Alexander a tragic flaw, or hamartia, a Greek word meaning to miss the mark when shooting an arrow Christians would later use the same word to mean “sin”.”
“Your hamartia is your: a. tragic flaw that leads to your downfall.”
“Most common, however, is "hamartia," a term from archery meaning to "miss the mark" particularly by falling short.”
"Should I stay with my girlfriend after she gave up sex for religion?"
“Yet in every Greek tragedy the catalyst for the protagonist’s downfall is hamartia, from the Greek hamartanein, a term that describes an archer missing the target.”
“In essence, hamartia means “mistake,” pure and simple—although the mistake is never pure and rarely simple.”
“The ancient Greek word for sin, hamartia, is an archery term that refers to missing the mark.”
The Huffington Post: Have Christians Sinned Against Jesus' Gospel?
“The Greek word for sin in this passage is hamartia, not hamartano.”
Simon & Schuster: God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu …
“In their most damning similarity, the contrasting hamartia of Clinton and Bush led them each to make the same tragic mistake in 2003.”
“Hubris, whatever its origin, was often the hamartia, or fatal character flaw, which doomed the protagonists in Greek tragedy.”
“It's as if Sesame Street is drawing on medievalism to portray the Classical concept of hamartia in King Minus.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hamartia’.
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Additional 250 Spelling Words
Words for the diehard intermediate and advanced spellers
facetiae, sagittary, anthophilous, hydromancy, pandect, carillonneur, tabbouleh, litterateur, windgall, pinguid, tressure, moderne and 238 more...
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phrontistery - h
from phrontistery.info
habanera, habile, habiliment, hackle, hackney, hadal, hame, hank, hansom, hapax, hark, harl and 568 more...
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fancy essay words
hiatus, ontology, exegesis, hermeneutics, dialectics, demiurge, ascertain, contention, eschatological, synecdoche, centripetal, centrifugal and 96 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 475 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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summer words 2009
how many words can I make mine this summer?
largess, hoyden, catholic, fornicatress, quean, slattern, bildungsroman, sybaritic, descresent, nodus, frittle, callipygian and 529 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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Predictionary
EXPECTED vs. SURPRISE
aberration, exception, spontaneous, synchronicity, startle, waylay, prophecy, zemblanity, inadvertent, atavism, sui generis, anomaly and 127 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Foyle's Philavery
A selection from Christopher Foyle's book, Foyle's Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words, which I was delighted to learn about here.
abligurition, arcifinious, batterfang, bottomry, broggle, brool, cacoepy, cark, dangleation, dasyphyllous, dentiloquy, deglute and 93 more...
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wordies
apple-howling, аппаратчик, perjinkities, katzenjammer, prorogue, henotheistic, wiggedy wack, twiss, concinnity, freeball, lywed, procrastokinetics and 76 more...
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speaking in tongues
schadenfreude, naïve, gnosis, sangfroid, capisce, flagrante delicto, lux, veritas, gravitas, coquette, panache, nom de plume and 73 more...
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Literary
hamartia, lectory, longueur, pathopoeia, caesura, arsis, festschrift, eucatastrophe, majuscule, ascender, diastole
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Literary / Aesthetic
Gongorism, paracinema, avantronica, arrière-garde, chrestomathy, diorama, philological, ideographic, daguerreotype, litterateur, pasticcio, mimeticism and 59 more...
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News to me
phlogiston, blancmange, hamartia, irruption, concatenation, satispassion, atrabilious, caliginous, zenzizenzizenzic, batrachian, nychthemeron, spalpeen and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hamartia.
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