hubris

noun

hu·bris ˈhyü-brəs

Synonyms of hubris next

: exaggerated pride or self-confidence

hubristic

hyü-ˈbri-stik

adjective

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Hubris Comes From Ancient Greece

English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their mortality.

Examples of hubris in a Sentence

When conceived it was a project of almost unimaginable boldness and foolhardiness, requiring great bravura, risking great hubris. —

Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman, 1998

If you were born Somewhere, hubris would come easy. But if you are Nowhere's child, hubris is an import, pride a thing you decide to acquire. —

Sarah Vowell, GQ, May 1998

… our belief in democracy regardless of local conditions amounts to cultural hubris. —

Robert D. Kaplan, Atlantic, December 1997

His failure was brought on by his hubris.

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

There isn’t a politician or entertainer on the planet who can match the hubris and delusion of an outgoing president with nothing to lose. —

Nicole Russell, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2025 The level of hubris that overtook Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her first-line officials could partially explain the pervasiveness of explicit corruption all the way to the upper echelons of government. —

Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 9 Jan. 2025 Yet, in a land whose ancient Greek forebears coined the notion of hubris as a potent ingredient of tragedy, both developments contributed to a crippling debt crisis that raised questions about Greek membership in the European Union and ballooned into a broader crisis across the eurozone. —

Alan Cowell, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2025 Whether they’re called bugs, worms, daemons, or gremlins, these unpredictable pests in the machines remind us of not only our fallibility, but our hubris. —

The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 23 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for hubris

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek hýbris "arrogance, abuse, violence, outrage," of uncertain origin

Note: A. Nikolaev ("Die Etymologie von altgriechischem ὕβρις," Glotta, 80. [2004], pp. 211-30) connects hýbris with Greek hḗbē "youth, vigor of youth, sexual maturity" (see hebephrenia) taken as descending from Indo-European *(H)i̯ēg^wh₂-eh₂; after a series of assumptions a derivative *Hi̯o/a(h₂)g^w-ri- becomes *hog^wri-, which by Cowgill's Law (*o > *u between a resonant and a labial consonant) results in hýbris. On the semantic side Nikolaev has to assume that hýbris originally meant something like "physical strength," with no negative connotation; this he attempts to demonstrate in passages from Homeric epic and Hesiod. Nikolaev's etymology is roundly rejected by R. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009). Older etymologies proposing that hy- represents a prefix approximately equivalent to epi- "on, upon" are now generally in disfavor.