Mythology Meaning
/mɪˈθɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe collection of myths of a people, concerning the origin of the people, history, deities, ancestors and heroes.
nounA similar body of myths concerning an event, person or institution.
Sentence Examples
For some reason economic booms have names taken from Japanese mythology given to them.
The story of a great flood is very common in world mythology.
In Greek mythology, Zeus is the son of Cronus.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In Greek ____, the gods lived on Mount Olympus and interfered in human affairs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In college, I took a very interesting course on comparative ____ to learn how several different cultures created stories to explain the world.
Word Origin & History
First attested as Middle English in 1412. From Middle French mythologie, from Latin mythologia, from Ancient Greek μυθολογία (muthología, “legend”) μυθολογέω (muthologéō, “to tell tales”), from μυθολόγος (muthológos, “legend”), from μῦθος (mûthos, “story”) + λέγω (légō, “to say”). By surface analysis, myth + -ology or mytho- + -logy.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Now the great obstacle in tracing the identity of any of the basic forms of worship lies in the vast number of names which appear in the ancient idolatries and mythologies, creating the illusion of a miscellany of gods, whereas many of these different names refer to the same deity. Thus the sun has been personified and worshipped under as many different names as there are nations on the surface of the earth."
— 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 20:
"The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll."
— 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2020, page 55:
"This program to distinguish Austria from Germany was important to building a new Austria, but it also indirectly contributed to victim mythology by implying that participation in the Nazi war of conquest was antithetical to Austrian identity."
— 2003, Peter Utgaard, Remembering & Forgetting Nazism: Education, National Identity, and the Victim Myth in Postwar Austria, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:
"Straight people who do not know, or do not know that they know, any gays, can accept all the mythology about us that is paramount in the propaganda of our enemies."
— 1981 April 4, Donald Vining, “Straight Talk”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In Greek ____, the gods lived on Mount Olympus and interfered in human affairs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In college, I took a very interesting course on comparative ____ to learn how several different cultures created stories to explain the world.