Achilles

[uh-kil-eez]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Classical Mythology.

the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War and hero of Homer's Iliad. He killed Hector and was killed when Paris wounded him in the heel, his one vulnerable spot, with an arrow.

Achilles

/ ˌækɪˈliːən, əˈkɪliːz /

noun

Greek myth Greek hero, the son of Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis: in the Iliad the foremost of the Greek warriors at the siege of Troy. While he was a baby his mother plunged him into the river Styx making his body invulnerable except for the heel by which she held him. After slaying Hector, he was killed by Paris who wounded him in the heel

Achilles

In classical mythology, the greatest warrior on the Greek side in the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). When he was an infant, his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river, but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable. During the Trojan War, he quarreled with the commander, Agamemnon, and in anger sulked in his tent. Eventually Achilles emerged to fight and killed the Trojan hero Hector, but he was wounded in the heel by an arrow and died shortly thereafter.

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Achilles is the hero of Homer's Iliad.

People speak of an “Achilles' heel” as the one weak or sore point in a person's character.

The phrase “wrath of Achilles” refers to the hero's anger, which caused so much destruction that Homer refers to it as his main theme in the first line of the Iliad.

The Achilles tendon runs from the heel to the calf.

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Other Word Forms

Achillean adjective

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“You have spontaneous multiple events, which is the Achilles heel of any operation,” he said.

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Huw Jones is going through an individual routine with one of the Lions conditioners as the Scotland centre recovers from a niggling Achilles problem.

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Greenwood would undergo one Achilles’ surgery on one foot and two on the other, never missing a full season in the process.

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Meanwhile Reform UK has identified the policy as a major Achilles heel for the Labour government.

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There were subtle changes to the Haillet, including a notch in the tongue for laces to pass through and a heel better shaped to protect the Achilles tendon.

From

achillea Achilles heel

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