labyrinth

UK/ˈlæb.ə.ɹɪnθ/US/ˈlæb.ə.ɹɪnθ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,085 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: labyrinths

A labyrinth is a maze of winding passages that is hard to escape. Lost in a labyrinth.

Strictly a labyrinth has one path and a maze has choices, though almost nobody keeps the distinction. The inner ear contains a labyrinth, which is where balance is sensed.

Definitions of labyrinth

1nounlabyrinthA maze of winding passages that is hard to escape.B2+
“The basement was a labyrinth of corridors nobody had mapped.”

labyrinth is a maze.

Where it comes from

Greek labyrinthos named the maze built for the Minotaur on Crete.

Ancient Greek
λᾰβύρῐνθος — a maze
Latin
labyrinthus
Middle English
laberynt
English, today
labyrinth

From Middle English laberynt, laberynthe, from Latin labyrinthus, from Ancient Greek λᾰβύρῐνθος (“a maze”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

labyrinth in the wild

In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze.
Labyrinth
Many labyrinths set in floors or on the ground are large enough that the path can be walked.
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete, and his wife Naucrate.
Icarus
Ofelia meets several strange and magical creatures who become central to her story, leading her through the trials of the old labyrinth garden.
Pan's Labyrinth
The bony labyrinth (also osseous labyrinth or otic capsule) is the rigid, bony outer wall of the inner ear in the temporal bone.
Bony labyrinth

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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