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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Greek Mythology One of the nymphs who lived in and presided over brooks, springs, and fountains.
  2. n. The satellite of Neptune that is closest to the planet.
  3. n. The aquatic nymph of certain insects, such as the mayfly, damselfly, or dragonfly.
  4. n. An aquatic plant of the genus Naias.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In Greek and Roman mythology, a water-nymph; a female deity presiding over springs and streams. The Naiads were represented as beautiful young girls with their heads crowned with flowers, light-hearted, musical, and beneficent.
  2. n. In botany, a plant of the genus Naias; also, sometimes, any plant of the Naiadaceæ.
  3. n. One of the naiades or pearly fresh-water mussels; a fresh-water mollusk as distinguished from an oceanid or marine mollusk.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Greek mythology A female deity (nymph) associated with water, especially a spring, stream, or other fresh water.
  2. n. entomology The aquatic larva (nymph) of a dragonfly or damselfly.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Myth.) A water nymph; one of the lower female divinities, fabled to preside over some body of fresh water, as a lake, river, brook, or fountain.
  2. n. (Zoöl.) Any species of a tribe (Naiades) of freshwater bivalves, including Unio, Anodonta, and numerous allied genera; a river mussel.
  3. n. (Zoöl) One of a group of butterflies. See Nymph.
  4. n. (Bot.) Any plant of the order Naiadaceæ, such as eelgrass, pondweed, etc.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (Greek mythology) a nymph of lakes and springs and rivers and fountains
  2. n. submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers; of fresh or brackish water

Etymologies

  1. Latin naias, from Ancient Greek Ναϊάς (Nāïas, "naiad"), from νάειν (naein, "to flow"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Latin nāias, nāiad-, from Greek nāias, probably from nān, to flow; see (s)nāu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “She was a child of the whole world, as the naiad is the child of the river, and the oread of the mountain.”

    There & Back

  • “I know, I had said the naiad was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, but she had been wet and dirty, and, even though she looked like she’d risen out of a Pre-Raphaelite pond, unmistakably Twenty-First Century.”

    To Say Nothing of the Dog

  • “The gold satin bow waved in the breeze at me, looking like a willowy naiad or dryad from Greek mythology.”

    Fictionaut: Anhedonia (excerpt 2)

  • “No faun, no selkie, no naiad, and the stocks of human and Centaur-in the cold-larders and in the fattening pens-were (so he said) dangerously low.”

    Fictionaut: Tran Siberian

  • “It is easy to see how a gnat-cloud might be seen as a dancing naiad, a water sprite.”

    Simon & Schuster: Wildwood

  • “And worse still, she's being shadowed by her ditsy twin sister -- a naiad who simply can't seem to stay out of trouble.”

    New Book Releases for Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Fantasy – November 3, 2009

  • “Was there a marble fountain, which superstition had dedicated to some sequestered naiad — it was surrounded by olives, almond and orange trees — its cistern was repaired, and taught once more to retain its crystal treasures.”

    Anne of Geierstein

  • “Mecistaeus, exterminates Dresos and Opheltios, Esepius, and that Pedasus whom the naiad Abarbarea bore to the blameless Bucolion; Ulysses overthrows Pidytes of Percosius; Antilochus, Ablerus; Polypaetes,”

    Les Miserables

  • “While the Bread and Circus Product Placement Olympi-ad mercifully distracts some from crashing banks, anthrax cover-ups and sub-penis envy, I am doing last minute lobbying of OOC for larger time clock numbers at the pool for my myopic 41 year old naiad shero.”

    Kate Clinton: Don't Hold Your Breath

  • “The naiad hummed under her breath and the gills on the side of her neck yawned pink against her pale blue skin.”

    Why we proofread before turning in a manuscript

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. instar
  1. larva
  1. nymph

hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. water nymph
  1. water plant
  1. aquatic plant
  1. hydrophyte
  1. hydrophytic plant

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. dracolich
  2. ampersand
  3. oomph
  4. sea-nymph
  1. wood nymph
  2. alizee
  3. thou'rt
  4. leather-faced
  1. kiosque
  2. sense-object
  3. one!
  4. menolly
  1. cottontail
  2. Chickie
  3. voxyn
  4. bubblehead
  1. mriswith
  2. Shaw
  3. Kevlar
  4. Kenya
  1. dryad
  2. too
  3. caseworker

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. nais
  1. Oceanid
  1. water nymph
  1. mussel
  1. Najadaceae
  1. nymph

tags (2)

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  1. narnia
  1. cvvvc

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  • fbharjo Greek satellite of Neptune: a type of dragonfly: from Greek "to flow" Aug 13, 2008

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‘naiad’ has been looked up 3480 times, loved by 2 people, added to 34 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 6.