MYTH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does myth mean? 

• MYTH (noun)
  The noun MYTH has 1 sense:

1. a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people

  Familiarity information: MYTH used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MYTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("myth" is a kind of...):

story (a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "myth"):

Gotterdammerung; Ragnarok; Twilight of the Gods (myth about the ultimate destruction of the gods in a battle with evil)

Holonyms ("myth" is a member of...):

mythology (myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person)

Derivation:

mythic (based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)

mythic (relating to or having the nature of myth)

mythical (based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)

mythologize (make into a myth)

 Context examples 

There are many myths about what causes acne.

(Acne, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

Lady St. Simon is a myth.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Knowing him, I review the old Scandinavian myths with clearer understanding.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There is this myth that finance ministers still live by, that you have to let industry pollute or else you won’t develop.

(Pollution is the World’s No. 1 Killer, VOA)

He was not that sun-myth that the mob was worshipping and sacrificing dinners to.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Another common myth is that dirty skin causes acne; however, blackheads and pimples are not caused by dirt.

(Acne, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

He had never received a sign of the existence of one, and from absence of judgment in rejecting all he wrote it seemed plausible that editors were myths, manufactured and maintained by office boys, typesetters, and pressmen.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)