Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses abreast.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In classical antiquity, a two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses, which were harnessed all abreast. It was used in racing in the Greek Olympian games, and in the circensian games of the Romans. The quadriga is often met with as the reverse type of Greek coins, especially those of Sicily, and is of frequent occurrence in sculpture and vase-painting.
Wiktionary
- n. historical A Roman racing chariot drawn by four horses abreast.
- n. historical A team of four horses, especially as used in chariot racing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Rom. Antiq.) A car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast.
Etymologies
- From Latin quādrīgae, literally "four yoked" (quattuor "four" + iugum "yoke"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin quadrīga, sing. of quadrīgae, team of four horses, contraction of quadriiugae, feminine pl. of quadriiugus, of a team of four : quadri-, quadri- + iugum, yoke; see jugum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Dionysius went over to Syracuse with his four-horse chariot, called the quadriga, and, much to the surprise of the Greeks, won the coveted laurel wreath at the”
“Notice now the sun's quadriga ie. chariot on top of the roof representing the sun at zenith?”
“On the top of the arch of Septimius Severus was an quadriga.”
“The Mausoleum was seven storeys of white marble crowned by a quadriga four-horse chariot, and my guess is that it would have been visible to ships for at least twenty nautical miles.”
“All at once he threw back his head, his blond locks fell back like those of an angel on the sombre quadriga made of stars, they were like the mane of a startled lion in the flaming of an halo, and Enjolras cried:”
“Apollo had a quadriga, a chariot which was pulled by four horses, which he drove across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispensing the night.”
Pope Benedict Archbishop of Canterbury Cancel George Bush's Crusade
“Following them was a manic chattering dwarf driving a four-horse chariot, an imperial quadriga, only this one was pulled by haltered goats.”
“Five centuries later they're in Rome, on top of a triumphal arch of Nero in the Forum, part of a sculptural group showing the emperor drawing a four-horse quadriga.”
““I have a family-style mule-drawn conveyance and a litter for the personal use of my wife,” said Calliopus in a hurt tone, obviously making rapid plans to sell his boy racer quadriga and it quartet of zippy Spanish greys.”
“He [granted] a general amnesty to the empire, granted one quadriga of horses to each king's son of the imperial house who was enregistered,2. 2 to the officials and common people, noble ranks, to [each] hundred households, an ox and wine, and to the Thrice Venerable, the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quadriga’.
-
250 Cherry-Picked Words
Juicy words for the intermediate and advanced speller
consomme, miniaceous, nankeen, smaragdine, stramineous, vitellary, allemande, beguine, bransle, charabanc, margaritaceous, chaconne and 238 more...
-
phrontistery - q
from phrontistery.info
qanat, qasida, qat, qigong, qintar, qiviut, qoph, qua, quab, quackle, quacksalver, quad and 227 more...
-
the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
-
Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
-
Verbalitis
syncretic
anecdotal, phthisis, serendipitous, slapper, syncretic, sesquipedalian, hysteresis, polt, noyade, crocket, irenic, masquerade and 281 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quadriga.

chained_bear "... And rushing directly toward him, screaming like an eagle and wild-eyed as his horses, was what appeared to be one of the ancient German gods of war, driving a chariot drawn by four galloping dark horses, scarlet-mouthed and foaming.
Grey flung himself to the side, taking the butler to the ground with him, and the chariot slewed past with barely an inch to spare, a flurry of monstrous hooves spraying them with sand and droplets of saliva....
The quadriga—yes, by God, it was; the four horses ran abreast, threatening at every moment to overturn the chariot that bounced like a pebble in their wake—galloped on, held in perilous check by the one-armed maniac who stood upright behind them...."
—Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (New York: Delacorte Press, 2007), 333 May 5, 2009