Meanings
centaur1
plural centaurs · alternative Centaur
- Greekhuman sciencesA mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.
Synonyms: hippocentaur
- board gamesA chess-playing team comprising a human player and a computer who work together.
This was not Kasparov's approach. Instead of rejecting the machines, he returned the year after his defeat to Deep Blue with a different kind of chess, which he called ‘Advanced Chess’. Other names for Advanced Chess include ‘cyborg’ and ‘centaur’ chess.
2018, James Bridle, New Dark Age: Technology, Knowledge and the End of the Future, Verso Books, →ISBN, page 159 - broadlyartificial intelligenceA human and an AI who work together.
A centaur goes in circles if the human half doesn’t know what it’s doing. That’s where the panic over pedagogy comes in.
2025 October 26, Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Age of De-Skilling”, in The Atlantic2 more examples
The first—termed “cyborgs” by the authors—intertwined with the AI, moulding, checking and refining its responses, while the second—“centaurs”—divided labour, handing off more AI-suited subtasks while focussing on their own areas of expertise.
2023 November 11, John Burn-Murdoch, “Generative AI and white-collar jobs: reasons to be wary”, in FT Weekend (The FT View section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8Programming has not yet gone the way of chess. But the centaurs have arrived. GPT-4 on its own is, for the moment, a worse programmer than I am. Ben is much worse. But Ben plus GPT-4 is a dangerous thing.
2023 November 13, James Somers, “A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN
Centaur2
- astrologyThe constellation and zodiacal sign Sagittarius.
The Centaure, the horn'd goatfiſh Capricorne, The ſnake-heard [sic] Gorgon, and fierce Sagittar.
1634, Thomas Carew, Cœlum Britanicum. A Masque at White-Hall in the Banquetting-House on Shrove-Tuesday-Night, the 18. of February 1633, London: John Walkley, page 91 more example
He picked up the ancient book of magic. ‘The Sign of the Centaur. Half man, half horse. Where shall I find it?’
1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 115Synonyms: Archer
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.
proper nounThe constellation and zodiacal sign Sagittarius.
Origin
- Ancient Greekκένταυρος
- Latincentaurus
- Englishcentaur
From Latin centaurus, from Ancient Greek κένταυρος (kéntauros), from Κένταυρος (Kéntauros, “a member of a savage race from Thessaly”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans sentour
- sentourmythical half-man, half-horse
Ancient Greek κένταυρος
- κένταυρος (kéntauros)mythical half-man, half-horse
Arabic قَنْطُور
- قَنْطُور (qanṭūr)mythical half-man, half-horse
Bulgarian кентавър, Кентавър
- кентавър (kentavăr)mythical half-man, half-horse
- Кентавър (Kentavăr)astronomy
Catalan centaure
- centauremythical half-man, half-horse
Chinese Cantonese 人馬 /人马
- 人馬 /人马 (jan⁴ maa⁵)mythical half-man, half-horse
Chinese Mandarin 人馬 /人马, 半人馬 /半人马
- 人馬 /人马 (rénmǎ)mythical half-man, half-horse
- 半人馬 /半人马 (bànrénmǎ)mythical half-man, half-horse
- 半人馬座 /半人马座 (bànrénmǎzuò)astronomy
Czech kentaur, Kentaur
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- Kentaurastronomy
- souhvězdí Kentauraastronomy
Danish kentaur
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Dutch paardmens, kentaur
- paardmensmythical half-man, half-horse
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- centaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- Centaurastronomy
Esperanto centaŭro
- centaŭromythical half-man, half-horse
Finnish kentauri
- kentaurimythical half-man, half-horse
French centaure, Centaure
- centauremythical half-man, half-horse
- Centaureastronomy
German Zentaur
- Zentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Greek κένταυρος
- κένταυρος (kéntavros)mythical half-man, half-horse
Hebrew קֶנְטָאוּר
- קֶנְטָאוּר (kentaur)mythical half-man, half-horse
Hindi सेंटूर
- सेंटूर (sẽṭūr)mythical half-man, half-horse
Hungarian kentaur, Kentaur
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- Kentaurastronomy
Irish ceinteár
- ceinteármythical half-man, half-horse
Italian centauro, centauro
- centauromythical half-man, half-horse
- centauroastronomy
Japanese ケンタウロス, 人馬
- ケンタウロス (Kentaurosu)mythical half-man, half-horse
- 人馬 (jinba)mythical half-man, half-horse
- ケンタウルス (Kentaurusu)astronomy
- ケンタウロス (Kentaurosu)astronomy
- ケンタウルス族 (Kentaurusu-zoku)astronomy
Korean 켄타우로스, 인마
- 켄타우로스 (kentauroseu)mythical half-man, half-horse
- 인마 (inma)mythical half-man, half-horse
Latin centaurus
- centaurusmythical half-man, half-horse
Lithuanian kentauras
- kentaurasmythical half-man, half-horse
Malay sentora, sentaur
- sentoramythical half-man, half-horse
- sentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Norwegian Bokmål kentaur
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Polish centaur
- centaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Portuguese centauro
- centauromythical half-man, half-horse
Russian кента́вр, китовра́с
- кента́вр (kentávr)mythical half-man, half-horse
- китовра́с (kitovrás)mythical half-man, half-horse
Slovak centaurus, kentaur
- centaurusmythical half-man, half-horse
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- kentaurusmythical half-man, half-horse
Spanish centauro
- centauromythical half-man, half-horse
Swahili kentauro
- kentauromythical half-man, half-horse
Swedish kentaur
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
Tagalog sentawro
- sentawromythical half-man, half-horse
Turkish kentaur, kentauroi
- kentaurmythical half-man, half-horse
- kentauroimythical half-man, half-horse
- at adammythical half-man, half-horse
- aryuntmythical half-man, half-horse
- eryuntmythical half-man, half-horse
- yaryuntmythical half-man, half-horse
Ukrainian кента́вр
- кента́вр (kentávr)mythical half-man, half-horse
Vietnamese nhân mã
- nhân mãmythical half-man, half-horse
Welsh dynfarch
- dynfarchmythical half-man, half-horse
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with centaur
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
centaur. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/centaur
“centaur.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/centaur. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “centaur,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/centaur.
Source: centaur on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.