odyssey

noun

od·​ys·​sey ˈä-də-sē 

plural odysseys

1

: a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune

… his odyssey from rural South to urban North, from poverty to affluence, from Afro-American folk culture to a Eurocentric world of books.

—John Edgar Wideman

2

: an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest

an odyssey of self-discovery

a spiritual odyssey from disbelief to faith

Did you know?

Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey, spends 20 years traveling home from the Trojan War. He has astonishing adventures and learns a great deal about himself and the world; he even descends to the underworld to talk to the dead. Thus, an odyssey is any long, complicated journey, often a quest for a goal, and may be a spiritual or psychological journey as well as an actual voyage.

Examples of odyssey in a Sentence

The story is about the emotional odyssey experienced by a teenage girl.

the spiritual odyssey of the deeply religious

Recent Examples on the Web

Not only did Small Move’s employees turn it into an 11-hour odyssey, the company tacked on $3,243 in new charges. —David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 6 Feb. 2026

What follows is not a quick montage of temporary setbacks, but a grinding legal odyssey through an all-too-familiar hell determined to make the already-struggling Amanda pay for someone else’s mistake. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 4 Feb. 2026

But her college housemate and kayak support paddler, Sarah Enix, said the swim odyssey — with Breed intending to be in the water each day for five hours and 10 to 12 miles — is being planned meticulously. —James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 4 Feb. 2026

Stranger Things ended its five-season odyssey on Netflix on top — of not just the weekly streaming charts, but also Nielsen’s all-time weekly numbers. —Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 29 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

the Odyssey, epic poem attributed to Homer recounting the long wanderings of Odysseus

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for odyssey

• geodesy

Kids Definition

odyssey

noun

od·​ys·​sey ˈäd-ə-sē 

plural odysseys

: a long wandering or series of travels

Etymology

named for the Odyssey, a long poem from ancient Greece telling the story of the 10-year wanderings of Odysseus, a Greek hero and king