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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

charybdis

/kəˈɹɪbdɪs/

IPA accent not specified by source

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What does charybdis mean?

proper noun

  1. A dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily opposite Scylla on the Italian coast.
  2. A personification of the above whirlpool as a female monster.
  3. Any dangerous whirlpool.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/kəˈɹɪbdɪs/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

(Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 35.) The Stygian flood, and Scylla and Charybdis, are found among the legends of the Caribs.
Ignatius DonnellyAtlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldProject Gutenberg ebook #4032
Now to most men this would only have been a choice of evils, a progress from Scylla to Charybdis: not so to our Colonel.
William SangsterUmbrellas and Their HistoryProject Gutenberg ebook #6674
More book examples (3)
Truly then I fear you are damn’d both by father and mother; thus when I shun Scylla your father, I fall into Charybdis your mother.
William ShakespeareThe Complete Works of William ShakespeareProject Gutenberg ebook #100
I should be between the Scylla of dullness and the Charybdis of indiscretion, and I feel that I had far better confine myself strictly to the underground drama which was being played beneath the surface of Ruritanian politics.
Anthony HopeThe prisoner of ZendaProject Gutenberg ebook #95
Surely the providential order is that progress should be effected, in so far as machinery is concerned, in the way that I have just spoken of: but what embarrasses society's march and makes it go from Charybdis to Scylla is precisely the fact that it is not organized.
P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) ProudhonSystem of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of MiseryProject Gutenberg ebook #444