apollo

plural apollos

1. Alternative letter-case form of Apollo (“a very handsome young man”)
2. Alternative letter-case form of Apollo (“any of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo)”)

1. GreekRomanhuman sciencesThe son of Zeus and Leto (or Jupiter and Latona), and the twin brother of Artemis (or Diana). He was the god of light, music, medicine, and poetry; and prophecy, dance, manly beauty, and more.

   ‘Blue are the hills that are far away,’ is an owercome in the countryside, and while at first on his side it may have been but a young man’s fancy, to her he was like the god Apollo descending from the skies.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

2. astronomyThe planet Mercury, when observed as a Morning Star.
3. abbreviationastronomyShort for 1862 Apollo, an Apollo asteroid.
4. US space programA United States space program, and the vehicles it created, used for human travel to the moon.

   Apollo 11 landed people on the moon for the first time.

5. with definite articleApollo Theatre, a music hall in New York City associated with African-American performers.
6. A male given name.
7. A placename.

plural Apollos

1. countableAny of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo).
2. countableA very handsome young man.
3. AfricaWestuncountableAcute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis.

   After that, children in school said you could get Apollo, a form of conjunctivitis, by staring at an eclipse too long.

   2005, Sefi Atta, Everything Good Will Come, Arris Books, page 11

   1 more example

   Her eyes hurt and when her mother looked at her in the morning and worried that she had Apollo because her eyes were so red she did not tell her otherwise.

   2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters’ Street, Vintage (2010), page 133

plural Apollos

1. astronomyAn asteroid possessing an orbit that crosses the orbit of the Earth and an orbital period of over one year, with semimajor axes greater than 1 AU, and perihelion distances less than 1.017 AU.