Ouroboros
noun
Ou·ro·bo·ros
ˌyu̇r-ō-ˈbȯr-əs 
variants
or ouroboros
or less commonly Uroboros
or uroboros
1
: a circular symbol that depicts a snake or dragon devouring its own tail and that is used especially to represent the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth
2
usually ouroboros
or less commonly uroboros
: something (such as a never-ending cycle) that is likened to or suggestive of the Ouroboros symbol
Trauma is a time traveller, an ouroboros that reaches back and devours everything that came before.—
Junot Díaz
Junot DíazBut as Hollywood continues its transformation into a reboot ouroboros of unoriginal ideas, I have a tiny bit of fear that these projects will be disasters.—Miles Surrey
Miles SurreyExamples of Ouroboros in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The Primitive War historical sci-fi military novel series includes Primitive War II: Animus Infernal and the upcoming third installment Primitive War III: Aeon Ouroboros.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 2 Apr. 2025
In like fashion, the Ouroboros snake that is the music world lives, breathes and progresses by repetitively making a grand meal of its own ass.
—Jonathan Rowe, Spin, 11 Aug. 2023
Chatbots cite one another in a misinformation ouroboros.
—James Vincent, The Verge, 26 June 2023
In ancient mythology, a tail-eating snake is called an ouroboros, from the Greek word that literally means tail-eating.
—Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 23 Feb. 2023
This robot—the brainchild of students at Northeastern University—is meant to wiggle across difficult terrain, measure water in the pit of craters, and bite its own tail to become a spinning ouroboros tumbling down the side of a lunar cliff.
—WIRED, 15 Feb. 2023
So basically, the AI becomes an ouroboros eating its own logical tail.
—Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 14 Oct. 2022
The digital simulation produces a video loop of an ouroboros, a snake eating its tail, historically a symbolic of infinity or the cycle of life, death and rebirth.
—April Wallace, Arkansas Online, 25 Sep. 2022
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Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 2 Apr. 2025
In like fashion, the Ouroboros snake that is the music world lives, breathes and progresses by repetitively making a grand meal of its own ass.
—Jonathan Rowe, Spin, 11 Aug. 2023
Chatbots cite one another in a misinformation ouroboros.
—James Vincent, The Verge, 26 June 2023
In ancient mythology, a tail-eating snake is called an ouroboros, from the Greek word that literally means tail-eating.
—Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 23 Feb. 2023
This robot—the brainchild of students at Northeastern University—is meant to wiggle across difficult terrain, measure water in the pit of craters, and bite its own tail to become a spinning ouroboros tumbling down the side of a lunar cliff.
—WIRED, 15 Feb. 2023
So basically, the AI becomes an ouroboros eating its own logical tail.
—Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 14 Oct. 2022
The digital simulation produces a video loop of an ouroboros, a snake eating its tail, historically a symbolic of infinity or the cycle of life, death and rebirth.
—April Wallace, Arkansas Online, 25 Sep. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Ouroboros.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ouroboros. Accessed 21 May. 2025.
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