pyrrhic

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: Pyr=rhic

CIDE DICTIONARY

pyrrhic, a. [L. pyrrhichius, Gr. belonging to the (sc. ) a kind of war dance.].

•  Of or pertaining to an ancient Greek martial dance.  Byron.  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to a pyrrhic, or to pyrrhics; containing pyrrhic; as, a pyrrhic verse.  [1913 Webster]

Pyrrhic victory [From Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.], (a) a victory in which the winning side sustains very heavy losses. (b) any act supposedly benefitting the actor, for which the costs outweight the benefits.

pyrrhic, n. 

•  An ancient Greek martial dance, to the accompaniment of the flute, its time being very quick.  [1913 Webster]
•  A foot consisting of two short syllables.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pyrrhic, adj. (of a victory) won at too great a cost to be of use to the victor.

pyrrhic, n. & adj.
--n. a metrical foot of two short or unaccented syllables.
--adj. written in or based on pyrrhics.

Etymology

L pyrrhichius f. Gk purrhikhios (pous) pyrrhic (foot)

THESAURUS

pyrrhic

Alexandrine, accent, accentuation, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, antispastic, arsis, bacchius, beat, cadence, cadenced, caesura, catalexis, chloriamb, chloriambus, colon, counterpoint, cretic, dactyl, dactylic, dactylic hexameter, diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, dochmiac, elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, emphasis, epitrite, feminine caesura, foot, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, ionic, jingle, lilt, masculine caesura, measure, measured, meter, metric, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metron, molossus, mora, movement, numbers, paeon, pentameter, pentapody, period, proceleusmatic, prosodic, quantity, rhythm, rhythmic, scanning, spondaic, spondee, sprung rhythm, stress, swing, syzygy, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis, tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochaic, trochee