rhea
rhea Lexical Profile
rhea Game Scores & Validity
• noun
In Greek mythology, a Titan who was the daughter of Uranus and Gaea, and the mother of the major Olympian gods including Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera.
"The ancient Greeks venerated Rhea as the mother of the gods and often associated her with fertility and generation."
A large, flightless bird of the order Rheiformes, native to South America, resembling the African ostrich but smaller and possessing three-toed feet.
"During our tour of the Argentine pampas, we spotted a wild rhea running swiftly through the tall grass."
The second-largest moon of the planet Saturn, discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, composed largely of water ice and featuring a heavily cratered surface.
"Images transmitted by the Cassini spacecraft revealed the complex, icy surface of Rhea in unprecedented detail."
Word Nuance & Usage
The word is capitalized ('Rhea') when referring to the Greek Titan or the moon of Saturn, but typically lowercased ('rhea') when referring to the South American bird.
• Rhymes for rhea
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from the Latin 'Rhea', from Greek 'Rheia', the name of the Titan mother of the gods in Greek mythology. The South American bird was assigned this name in 1752 by Paul Möhring, following a common scientific practice of naming species after figures from classical antiquity.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.