Adjacent Words

Triton definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TRI'TON, n. In mythology, a fabled sea demi-god, supposed to be the trumpeter of Neptune. He is represented by poets and painters as half man and half fish.
1. A genus of the molluscal order of worms.
2. A bird of the West Indies, famous for its notes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (Greek mythology) a sea god; son of Poseidon
2: the largest moon of Neptune
3: tropical marine gastropods having beautifully colored spiral shells
4: small usually bright-colored semiaquatic salamanders of North America and Europe and northern Asia [syn: newt, triton]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Latin, from Greek Trit?n Date: 1536 1. capitalized a son of Poseidon described as a demigod of the sea with the lower part of his body like that of a fish 2. [New Latin, genus name, from Latin Triton] any of various large marine gastropod mollusks (family Ranellidae syn. Cymatiidae) with a heavy elongated conical shell; also the shell II. noun Etymology: tritium + ²-on Date: 1934 the nucleus of tritium

Britannica Concise

In Greek mythology, a merman and a demigod of the sea. He was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. According to Hesiod, Triton lived in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. He was represented as human to the waist, with the tail of a fish, and he had a spiral conch shell that he blew either to calm or raise the waves. Some traditions stated that there were many tritons. Largest of Neptune's known moons. Its diameter is about 1,700 mi (2,700 km), somewhat less than that of earth's moon. Triton moves in a retrograde orbit, opposite the direction of Neptune's rotation, so slowly that each season lasts over 40 years. It has a very thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and a surface temperature of -400° F (-240° C). It is covered with enormous expanses of ice pitted by what appear to be a few meteorite craters. Plumes of gas observed by Voyager may be gas venting through fissures when the surface is warmed by sunlight. In Greek mythology, a merman and a demigod of the sea. He was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. According to Hesiod, Triton lived in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. He was represented as human to the waist, with the tail of a fish, and he had a spiral conch shell that he blew either to calm or raise the waves. Some traditions stated that there were many tritons. Largest of Neptune's known moons. Its diameter is about 1,700 mi (2,700 km), somewhat less than that of earth's moon. Triton moves in a retrograde orbit, opposite the direction of Neptune's rotation, so slowly that each season lasts over 40 years. It has a very thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and a surface temperature of -400° F (-240° C). It is covered with enormous expanses of ice pitted by what appear to be a few meteorite craters. Plumes of gas observed by Voyager may be gas venting through fissures when the surface is warmed by sunlight.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 (in Greek mythology) a minor sea-god usu. represented as a man with a fish's tail and carrying a trident and shell-trumpet. 2 (triton) any marine gastropod mollusc of the family Cymatiidae, with a long conical shell. 3 (triton) a newt. Etymology: L f. Gk Triton

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a nucleus of a tritium atom, consisting of a proton and two neutrons.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Triton Tri"ton, n. [L., fr. Gr.?.] (Gr. Myth.) A fabled sea demigod, the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and the trumpeter of Neptune. He is represented by poets and painters as having the upper part of his body like that of a man, and the lower part like that of a fish. He often has a trumpet made of a shell. Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. --Wordsworth. 2. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of many species of marine gastropods belonging to Triton and allied genera, having a stout spiral shell, often handsomely colored and ornamented with prominent varices. Some of the species are among the largest of all gastropods. Called also trumpet shell, and sea trumpet. 3. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of aquatic salamanders. The common European species are Hemisalamandra cristata, Molge palmata, and M. alpestris, a red-bellied species common in Switzerland. The most common species of the United States is Diemyctylus viridescens. See Illust. under Salamander.

Moby Thesaurus

Davy, Davy Jones, Dylan, Neptune, Nereid, Nereus, Oceanid, Oceanus, Poseidon, Thetis, Varuna, fresh-water nymph, kelpie, limniad, man fish, mermaid, merman, naiad, nix, nixie, ocean nymph, sea devil, sea god, sea nymph, sea-maid, sea-maiden, seaman, siren, undine, water god, water spirit, water sprite