myth

noun \ ˈmith \

|Updated on: 16 Jun 2018

Editor's Note: myth and urban myth

Definition of myth

1 a : a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon

creation myths

b : parable, allegory

Moral responsibility is the motif of Plato's myths.

2 a : a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone; especially : one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society

seduced by the American myth of individualism
—Orde Coombs

the utopian myth of a perfect society

b : an unfounded or false notion

the myth of racial superiority

3 : a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence

the Superman myth

The unicorn is a myth.

4 : the whole body of myths

a student of Greek myth

See myth defined for English-language learners

See myth defined for kids

Examples of myth in a Sentence

It's an enduring myth that money brings happiness.
I don't believe the myths and legends about this forest.
Contrary to popular myth, no monster lives in this lake.

Recent Examples of myth from the Web

What might a pageant, shed of the myth, actually look like?

— megan garber, The Atlantic, "Miss America 2.0: The Inner Beauty Pageant?," 5 June 2018
In terms of the enduring myth of RFK, HRC was the anti-Bobby, or at least the representative of a party that was struggling with both its New Deal and more recent constituencies.

— ed kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "The Powerful Myth of Would-Be President RFK, 50 Years Later," 5 June 2018
Mark Rober, whose YouTube channel focuses on quirky science experiments and some amateur myth-busting, sent 10 wallets to volunteers in each city and instructed them to drop them in semi-random locations.

— eder campuzano, OregonLive.com, "Portland is way more honest than Seattle, YouTube experiment finds," 10 May 2018
His Washington Crossing the Delaware is part of a grand history of our nation’s penchant for myth-making.

— jane levere, Smithsonian, "What Happens When Art History Gets Refigured," 9 May 2018
Instead of ancient Greece, he's moved to a frozen land of Norse myth, hiding amongst gods and monsters, quietly raising his frail son and trying to forget about the evil he's done in the past.

— julie muncy, WIRED, "God of War Is a Messy, Beguiling Take on Fantasy Violence and Toxic Masculinity," 25 Apr. 2018
Argo Chasm is named after the boat that gave the Argonauts of myth their name; Mandjet Chasma is one of the boats that carries the Egyptian god Ra across the sky.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Kubrick and Clarke reunited as mountains on Pluto’s moon Charon," 12 Apr. 2018
But our cynicism, abetted by the omniscient eye of social media, can no longer sustain innocent myth-making.

— frank fitzpatrick, Philly.com, "HBO's film on Joe Paterno is a tragedy, not a documentary," 6 Apr. 2018
In their exploration of myth, dreams, power and fear, these books draw from the tradition of storytelling across Africa.

— The Economist, "Africa’s past is inspiring some of its most interesting fiction today," 5 Apr. 2018

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

myth and urban myth

For a word so often applied to events or stories from long, long ago, myth has a remarkably recent history in the English language. The earliest evidence for the word is from 1830, well after the time when the events themselves are thought to have occurred (though it should be noted that the related words mythology and mythic are hundreds of years older – still not as old as Achilles, but not young, either!). One application of myth, however – in the phrase urban myth – is quite new. Curiously, an urban myth does not usually have anything to do with the city: it is simply “a story about an unusual event or occurrence that many people believe is true but that is not true.” An example would be the tale that Elvis Presley is still alive after spending decades in a witness protection program. The phrase urban myth has been used to describe such hoaxes since at least 1971.

Origin and Etymology of myth

earlier mythos, mythus, borrowed from Greek mŷthos "utterance, speech, discourse, tale, narrative, fiction, legend," of obscure origin

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1830

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

myth Synonyms

Other Mythology and Folklore Terms

elysian, fay, muse, nimbus, phoenix

MYTH Defined for English Language Learners

myth

noun

Definition of myth for English Language Learners

: an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true
: a story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a practice, belief, or natural occurrence
: such stories as a group

MYTH Defined for Kids

myth

noun \ ˈmith \

Definition of myth for Students

1 : a story often describing the adventures of beings with more than human powers that attempts to explain mysterious events (as the changing of the seasons) or that explains a religious belief or practice

2 : such stories as a group

3 : a person or thing existing only in the imagination