Meanings
plural ouroboroi · plural ouroboroses · alternative uroboros
- human sciencesA serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death.
The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process.
1968 [1951], R. F. C. Hull, transl., Aion […] (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung), 2nd edition, volume 9.2, Princeton University Press, translation of original by C. G. Jung, →ISBN, page 2643 more examples
Khepera eating his own seed is a model of Romantic creativity, where the self is isolated and sexually dual. Khepera bent over himself is a uroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, a magic circle of regeneration and rebirth. The uroboros is the prehistoric track of natural cycle, from which Judaism and Hellenism make a conceptual break.
1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 41One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient.
2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 121First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […]
2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge, →ISBN - broadlyAnything of a circular or recursive nature.
The result is a statistical ouroboros: a self-reinforcing discrimination machine that amplifies social inequalities under the guise of technical neutrality.
2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 4, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN1 more example
Like an ouroboros, the story created and informed by the writer’s own experience suddenly flipped back on itself, Childress’s life now reflecting the story rather than the other way around.
2019 March 6, Soraya Roberts, “Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony”, in The Atlantic
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁ers-
- Ancient Greekοὐρά (ourá)
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷerh₃-
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷi-gʷr̥h₃-sḱé-ti
- Proto-Hellenic*gʷigʷrṓskō
- Ancient Greekβιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō)
- Ancient Greekοὐροβόρος (ourobóros)
- Englishouroboros
From Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”))).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic أُورُبُورُوس
- أُورُبُورُوس (ʔūrubūrūs)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Bulgarian уроборос
- уроборос (uroboros)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Catalan uròbor
- uròbora serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Chinese Mandarin 銜尾蛇 /衔尾蛇
- 銜尾蛇 /衔尾蛇 (xiánwěishé)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Czech úroboros
- úroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Esperanto uroboro
- uroboroa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Estonian uroboros
- uroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Finnish ouroboros
- ouroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
French ouroboros
- ouroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
German Uroboros
- Uroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Greek ουροβόρος
- ουροβόρος (ourovóros)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Hebrew אורובורוס
- אורובורוסa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Hindi ऊरोबोरोस
- ऊरोबोरोस (ūroboros)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Hungarian uroborosz
- uroborosza serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Italian uroboro
- uroboroa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Japanese ウロボロス
- ウロボロスa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Korean 우로보로스
- 우로보로스 (uroboroseu)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Latin ūroborus
- ūroborusa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Lithuanian uroboras
- uroborasa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Persian اوروبروس
- اوروبروسa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Polish uroboros
- uroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Portuguese uróboro
- uróboroa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Romanian uroborus
- uroborusa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Russian уробо́рос
- уробо́рос (urobóros)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Slovak uroboros
- uroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Spanish uróboro, pescadilla que se muerde la cola
- uróboroa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
- pescadilla que se muerde la colaa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
- ouroboroa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Swedish ouroboros
- ouroborosa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Ukrainian уробо́рос
- уробо́рос (urobóros)a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Urdu اوروبورس
- اوروبورسa serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail
Cite this entry
ouroboros. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ouroboros
“ouroboros.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ouroboros. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ouroboros,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ouroboros.
Source: ouroboros on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.