albatross

noun al·ba·tross \ ˈal-bə-ˌtrȯs , -ˌträs \

Updated on: 25 Apr 2018

Definition of albatross

plural albatross or albatrosses

1 : any of a family (Diomedeidae) of large web-footed seabirds that have long slender wings, are excellent gliders, and include the largest seabirds

2 a : something that causes persistent deep concern or anxiety

b : something that greatly hinders accomplishment : encumbrance

Fame has become an albatross that prevents her from leading a normal life.

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Examples of albatross in a Sentence

Fame has become an albatross that prevents her from leading a normal and happy life.
Fame has become an albatross around her neck.

Recent Examples of albatross from the Web

Kushner Companies is also on the clock to pay the $1.2 billion mortgage debt for 666 Fifth Avenue, a 41-story albatross in Manhattan that the company purchased in 2006, which is due February 2019.

— ian frisch, Longreads, "The Strike: Chemicals, Cancer, and the Fight for Health Care," 16 Apr. 2018
That speaks to the albatross hanging around the island’s neck: the uncertainty over its status.

— The Economist, "America has let down its Puerto Rican citizens," 12 Apr. 2018
Alzheimer’s has long been one of the heaviest therapeutic albatrosses slung round drug developers’ necks.

— sy mukherjee, Fortune, "Researchers Just Proposed a Radical New Way of Defining Alzheimer's. Could It Lead to Better Drugs?," 10 Apr. 2018
This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family.

— eli meixler, Time, "Anti-Apartheid Activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Leaves Behind a Complicated Legacy," 3 Apr. 2018
Who will find history a boost, and who an albatross?

— rachel bachman, WSJ, "What to Watch in the Final Four," 31 Mar. 2018
These arduous and increasingly costly requirements would be an albatross.

— BostonGlobe.com, "Should Massachusetts institute same-day voter registration?," 23 Mar. 2018
These models bear the same resemblance to the brain and the neuron as my bicycle does to an albatross.

— chris lee, Ars Technica, "Neuron cascade may be akin to neutral selection in evolution," 16 Jan. 2018
The images accumulate in Blue Planet II: Walrus struggle, with failing strength, at the edge of melting ice chunks; an albatross vomits up a plastic bag; the milk of a mother dolphin might be poisoned, toxic to her calf.

— james parker, The Atlantic, "Blue Planet II," 10 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'albatross.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Why is albatross used to refer to a burden?

The albatross is an exceedingly large seabird, having a wingspan as much as 11 feet across. It is a magnificent glider, capable of staying aloft for hours at a time without flapping its wings, and tends to remain almost entirely at sea, typically coming ashore only to breed.

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the titular mariner kills an albatross that has been following his ship, bringing down a curse that leads to the death of all other crew members. As a punishment, the crew hang the dead bird from the mariner’s neck, and he remains alive to witness the ship’s fate unfold. This potent emblem led to the coining of a metaphorical meaning for albatross as something that causes anxiety or guilt or that burdens and encumbers.

Illustration of albatross

Origin and Etymology of albatross

probably alteration of obsolete alcatrace frigate bird, from Spanish or Portuguese alcatraz pelican, from Arabic al-ghaṭṭās, a kind of sea eagle

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1672

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year