Py·thag·o·ras

(pĭ-thăg′ər-əs) fl. sixth century bc.

Greek philosopher who founded a school in southern Italy that sought to discover the mathematical principles of reality through the study of musical harmony and geometry. The Pythagorean theorem is ascribed to him.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pythagoras

(paɪˈθæɡərəs)

(Biography) ?580–?500 bc, Greek philosopher and mathematician. He founded a religious brotherhood, which followed a life of strict asceticism and greatly influenced the development of mathematics and its application to music and astronomy

Pythagoras

(paɪˈθæɡərəs)

(Astronomy) a deep crater in the NE quadrant of the moon, 136 kilometres in diameter

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Py•thag•o•ras

(pɪˈθæg ər əs)

n.

c582–c500 B.C., Greek philosopher and mathematician.

Py·thag·o·ras

(pĭ-thăg′ər-əs)

Sixth century b.c. Greek philosopher who theorized that numbers constitute the essence of all natural things. He developed the Pythagorean theorem and was one of the first to apply mathematical order to observations of the stars.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Pythagoras - Greek philosopher and mathematician who proved the Pythagorean theorem; considered to be the first true mathematician (circa 580-500 BC)

Translations

Pythagoras

Πυθαγόρας

Pythagoras

Pythagore

Pitagora

Pythagoras

Pitagora

Pythagoras

Pitagoras

Pitagora

Пифагор

Pitagora

Pythagoras

Pythagoras

[paɪˈθægərəs] N → Pitágoras

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Pythagoras

n → Pythagoras m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Pythagoras

[paɪˈθægərəs] n → Pitagora m
Pythagoras' theorem → teorema m di Pitagora

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Pythagoras, that in bright Greece, two thousand years ago, did die, so good, so wise, so mild; I sailed with thee along the Peruvian coast last voyage -- and, foolish as I am, taught thee, a green simple boy, how to splice a rope!

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"My lord, Pythagoras made his disciples keep silence for five years that they might learn to hold their tongues."

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The parable of Pythagoras is dark, but true; Cor ne edito; Eat not the heart.

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Then he had penetrated further, lower, beneath all that finished, material, limited knowledge; he had, perhaps, risked his soul, and had seated himself in the cavern at that mysterious table of the alchemists, of the astrologers, of the hermetics, of which Averroès, Gillaume de Paris, and Nicolas Flamel hold the end in the Middle Ages; and which extends in the East, by the light of the seven- branched candlestick, to Solomon, Pythagoras, and Zoroaster.

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Besides, this man, were he as mute as a disciple of Pythagoras, -- this man would be sure to have in the troop some favourite soldier, whom he would make his sergeant, the sergeant would penetrate the secret of the lieutenant, in case the latter should be honest and unwilling to sell it.

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Young ladies take their notions of our sex from the novels written by their own, and compared with the monstrosities that masquerade for men in the pages of that nightmare literature, Pythagoras' plucked bird and Frankenstein's demon were fair average specimens of humanity.

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The theorem that the square of the diagonal is double the square of the side--that famous discovery of primitive mathematics, in honour of which the legendary Pythagoras is said to have sacrificed a hecatomb--is elicited from him.

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O, Pythagoras' metempsychosis, were that true, This soul should fly from me, and I be chang'd Into some brutish beast!

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All the value which attaches to Pythagoras, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Kepler, Swedenborg, Schelling, Oken, or any other who introduces questionable facts into his cosmogony, as angels, devils, magic, astrology, palmistry, mesmerism, and so on, is the certificate we have of departure from routine, and that here is a new witness.

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As we turned and moved again through the temple, I wished that the illustrious men who had sat in it in the remote ages could visit it again and reveal themselves to our curious eyes--Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Socrates, Phocion, Pythagoras, Euclid, Pindar, Xenophon, Herodotus, Praxiteles and Phidias, Zeuxis the painter.

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Had he in his lifetime friends who loved to associate with him, and who handed down to posterity an Homeric way of life, such as was established by Pythagoras who was so greatly beloved for his wisdom, and whose followers are to this day quite celebrated for the order which was named after him?

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Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.

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