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He·ro 1 (hîrō)
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n.
Greek Mythology
A priestess of Aphrodite beloved by Leander.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
He·ro 2 (hērō, hîrō) or He·ron (hērŏn) First century AD.
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Alexandrian scientist who invented many water-driven and steam-driven machines and devised a formula for deriving the area of a triangle from the lengths of its sides.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
he·ro (hîrō)
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n. pl. he·roes
1. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed one's life: soldiers and nurses who were heroes in an unpopular war.
2. A person noted for special achievement in a particular field: the heroes of medicine. See Synonyms at celebrity.
3. The principal character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation.
4. In mythology and legend, an individual, often a man of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for bold exploits, and favored by the gods.

[Early Modern English heroe, back-formation from heroes, heroes, from Latin hērōēs, plural of hērōs, demigod, heroic man, from Greek; see ser-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.