Meanings
siren1
plural sirens · plural sirenes · alternative archaic dated sirene
- Greekhuman sciencesOne of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.
Now give ear to what I'm about to say to you, / and a god himself will bring it before your mind. / First, you will come to the Sirens. / These beings enthrall all men who arrive before them. […]
2008 October 7, Homer, The Odyssey, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 278 - One who sings sweetly and charms.
Synonyms: crooner
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Hestina.
- A device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device.First known use 1879
My attention was diverted from this sight by a furious yelling, like that of the thing called a siren in our manufacturing towns.
1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 1031 more example
1984, Steve Harris, "Aces High", Iron Maiden, Powerslave. There goes the siren that warns of the air raid / Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak / Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne / Got to get up for the coming attack.
Synonyms: klaxon
- entertainmentA musical instrument, one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra (patented as Acme Siren in 1895).
- An instrument for demonstrating the laws of beats and combination tones.
- astronomyAn astrophysical event that can be used for calculating cosmic distances.
present singular third person sirens · participle present sirening · participle past sirened · past sirened · alternative archaic dated sirene
- intransitiveTo make a noise with, or as if with, a siren.
- intransitiveTo drive with a siren on.
alternative archaic dated sirene
- Relating to or like a siren.
Synonyms: bewitching, enchanting, enticing, sirenic
Siren2
- A village, the county seat of Burnett County, Wisconsin, United States.
- A town in Burnett County, Wisconsin, United States, surrounding the village of the same name.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne who sings sweetly and charms.
nounA dangerously seductive woman.
nounA member of Sirenia, an order of mammals.
nounA device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device.
adjectiveRelating to or like a siren.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
siren · noun, verb, adjective
- Ancient GreekΣειρήν
- LatinSīrēn
- Old Frenchsereine
- Middle Englishsiren
- Englishsiren
From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Siren · proper noun
- Swedishsyren“lilac”
- EnglishSiren
Intended to be Syren, from Swedish syren (“lilac”), but miscorrected by the US Post Office, who assumed this was a misspelling.
More words from Swedish
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek Σειρήν
- Σειρήν (Seirḗn)nymph of Greek mythology
Arabic سِيرَانَة, صَفّارَة
- سِيرَانَة (sīrāna)nymph of Greek mythology
- صَفّارَة (ṣaffāra)device for making a sound alarm
Bulgarian сире́на, прелъсти́телка
- сире́на (siréna)nymph of Greek mythology
- прелъсти́телка (prelăstítelka)dangerously seductive woman
- сире́на (siréna)device for making a sound alarm
Catalan sirena, sirena
- sirenanymph of Greek mythology
- sirenadangerously seductive woman
- sirenadevice for making a sound alarm
Chinese Mandarin 塞壬, 女海妖
- 塞壬 (sàirén)nymph of Greek mythology
- 女海妖 (nǚhǎiyāo)nymph of Greek mythology
- 賽蓮 /赛莲 (sàilián)nymph of Greek mythology
- 妖精 (yāojīng)dangerously seductive woman
- 妖婦 /妖妇 (yāofù)dangerously seductive woman
- 妖女 (yāonǚ)dangerously seductive woman
- 汽笛 (qìdí)device for making a sound alarm
- 警報器 /警报器 (jǐngbàoqì)device for making a sound alarm
Czech siréna
- sirénadevice for making a sound alarm
Danish sirene, sirene
- sirenenymph of Greek mythology
- sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
Dutch sirene, sirene
- sirenenymph of Greek mythology
- sirenedangerously seductive woman
- sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
Esperanto sireno, sireno
- sirenonymph of Greek mythology
- sirenodangerously seductive woman
- sirenodevice for making a sound alarm
Estonian sireen
- sireendevice for making a sound alarm
Finnish seireeni, seireeni
- seireeninymph of Greek mythology
- seireenidangerously seductive woman
- sireenieläinmammal
- mutaliskosalamander
- sireenidevice for making a sound alarm
- pillimusical instrument
French sirène, sirène
- sirènenymph of Greek mythology
- sirènedangerously seductive woman
- sirènesalamander
- sirènedevice for making a sound alarm
German Sirene, Sirene
- Sirenenymph of Greek mythology
- Sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
Greek σειρήνα, Σειρήνα
- σειρήνα (seirína)nymph of Greek mythology
- Σειρήνα (Seirína)nymph of Greek mythology
- σειρήνα (seirína)dangerously seductive woman
- σειρήνα (seirína)device for making a sound alarm
Hebrew סִּירֵנה, אַזְעָקָה
- סִּירֵנה (siréna)nymph of Greek mythology
- אַזְעָקָה (azaká)device for making a sound alarm
Hungarian szirén, sziréna
- szirénnymph of Greek mythology
- szirénadevice for making a sound alarm
Icelandic sírena
- sírenadevice for making a sound alarm
Indonesian sirene
- sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
Irish Síréana, banchealgaire
- Síréananymph of Greek mythology
- banchealgairedangerously seductive woman
- bonnándevice for making a sound alarm
Italian sirena, sirena
- sirenanymph of Greek mythology
- sirenadevice for making a sound alarm
Japanese セイレーン, 妖女
- セイレーン (seirēn)nymph of Greek mythology
- 妖女 (yōjo)dangerously seductive woman
- 妖婦 (yōfu)dangerously seductive woman
- サイレン (sairen)device for making a sound alarm
- 警笛 (keiteki)device for making a sound alarm
- 警報器 (keihōki)device for making a sound alarm
- 警報機 (keihōki)device for making a sound alarm
- 号笛 (gōteki)device for making a sound alarm
Korean 세이렌, 요부
- 세이렌 (seiren)nymph of Greek mythology
- 요부 (yobu)dangerously seductive woman
- 사이렌 (sairen)device for making a sound alarm
- 경보기 (gyeongbogi)device for making a sound alarm
Latin Sīrēn
- Sīrēnnymph of Greek mythology
Latvian sirēna, sirēna
- sirēnanymph of Greek mythology
- sirēnadevice for making a sound alarm
Lithuanian sirenà, sirenà
- sirenànymph of Greek mythology
- sirenàdevice for making a sound alarm
Māori haona whakatūpato
- haona whakatūpatodevice for making a sound alarm
Norwegian Bokmål sirene, sirene
- sirenenymph of Greek mythology
- sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
Polish syrena, syrena
- syrenanymph of Greek mythology
- syrenadangerously seductive woman
- syrenamammal
- syrenasalamander
- syrenadevice for making a sound alarm
- gwizdekmusical instrument
Portuguese sereia, sirena
- sereianymph of Greek mythology
- sirenanymph of Greek mythology
- sereiadangerously seductive woman
- sirenedevice for making a sound alarm
- sirenadevice for making a sound alarm
Punjabi ਸਾਇਰਨ
- ਸਾਇਰਨ (sāiran)nymph of Greek mythology
Romanian sirenă
- sirenădevice for making a sound alarm
Russian сире́на, сире́на
- сире́на (siréna)nymph of Greek mythology
- сире́на (siréna)dangerously seductive woman
- соблазни́тельница (soblaznítelʹnica)dangerously seductive woman
- обольсти́тельница (obolʹstítelʹnica)dangerously seductive woman
- обворожи́тельница (obvorožítelʹnica)dangerously seductive woman
- прельсти́тельница (prelʹstítelʹnica)dangerously seductive woman
- сире́на (siréna)device for making a sound alarm
- гудо́к (gudók)device for making a sound alarm
Scottish Gaelic dùdach
- dùdachdevice for making a sound alarm
Spanish sirena, sirena
- sirenanymph of Greek mythology
- sirenadevice for making a sound alarm
Swahili kingora
- kingoradevice for making a sound alarm
Swedish siren, siren
- sirennymph of Greek mythology
- sirendevice for making a sound alarm
Thai ไซเรน, ไซเรน
- ไซเรน (sai-reen)nymph of Greek mythology
- ไซเรน (sai-reen)device for making a sound alarm
Turkish siren, siren
- sirennymph of Greek mythology
- sirendevice for making a sound alarm
Ukrainian сире́на, сире́на
- сире́на (syréna)nymph of Greek mythology
- сире́на (syréna)device for making a sound alarm
Vietnamese tiên chim, còi máy
- tiên chimnymph of Greek mythology
- còi máydevice for making a sound alarm
- còi điệndevice for making a sound alarm
- xi-rendevice for making a sound alarm
Welsh cyfareddwraig, cyfareddwragedd
- cyfareddwraignymph of Greek mythology
- cyfareddwrageddnymph of Greek mythology
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with siren
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
siren. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/siren
“siren.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/siren. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “siren,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/siren.
Source: siren on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.