Other forms: sphinxes
A sphinx is a stone figure with a lion's body and a human head. The Great Sphinx, a sphinx at the gate, silent as a sphinx.
The Egyptian one guards and the Greek one questions — in the Greek story the sphinx killed anybody who failed her riddle, and Oedipus answered it. Calling a person a sphinx means giving nothing away. The Great Sphinx at Giza is one of the oldest monumental sculptures.
1nounsphinxA stone figure with a lion's body and a human head.
“Tourists took photos of the Great Sphinx in front of the pyramids.”
sphinx is a figure.
Greek Sphinx names the monster, perhaps from sphingein, to squeeze or strangle. Sphincter is a relative.
Ancient Greek
Σφίγξ
Latin
Sphinx
Middle English
Spynx
English, today
sphinx
Built from
From Sphinx, from Middle English Spynx, from Latin Sphinx, from Ancient Greek Σφίγξ, perhaps either from σφίγγω (“to squeeze, to strangle”) (whence also sphincter), of qsb-grc origin, or from egy šzp-ꜥnḫ (“divine image”) literally “living image”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA