Pandora's box

noun

Pan·​do·​ra's box pan-ˈdȯr-əz- How to pronounce Pandora's box (audio)
: a prolific source of troubles

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The god Prometheus stole fire from heaven to give to the human race, which originally consisted only of men. To punish humanity, the other gods created the first woman, the beautiful Pandora. As a gift, Zeus gave her a box, which she was told never to open. However, as soon as he was out of sight she took off the lid, and out swarmed all the troubles of the world, never to be recaptured. Only Hope was left in the box, stuck under the lid. Anything that looks ordinary but may produce unpredictable harmful results can thus be called a Pandora's box.

Examples of Pandora's box in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Advances in technology have opened an exciting possibility or perhaps stirred a Pandora's box. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2024 Meta's plan to generate synthetic content tailored to individual users — which attracted little notice this week amid a slew of product announcements — opens a whole new Pandora's box in an AI world already full of them. Ina Fried, Axios, 27 Sep. 2024 Both Cancer and Sagittarius possess a rich inner world similar to Pandora's box, each containing a wealth of complexities and unique attributes waiting to be explored. Valerie Mesa, Peoplemag, 25 June 2024 There is also the possibility that the AI worries that humans will open Pandora's box. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 5 May 2023 The police have had bomb disposal robots forever, but the Pandora's box of weaponizing them was originally opened by the Dallas Police Department. Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 30 Nov. 2022 Blonde was a philosophical Pandora's box. Arabelle Sicardi, Allure, 19 Nov. 2022 Thompson said the trigger ban has opened up Pandora's box, creating a wave of tragedy and trauma for women across the state. ABC News, 16 Sep. 2022 Donham's unpublished memoir shows that the Pandora's box opened by Till's brutal death remains opened. Peniel Joseph, CNN, 22 July 2022

Word History

Etymology

from the box, sent by the gods to Pandora, which she was forbidden to open and which loosed a swarm of evils upon humankind when she opened it out of curiosity

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Pandora's box was in 1579

Dictionary Entries Near Pandora's box

Cite this Entry

“Pandora's box.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pandora%27s%20box. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

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