1
as in shrews
a bad-tempered scolding woman
in fairy tales stepmothers are often portrayed as harpies who make the lives of their stepchildren miserable
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in predators
a person who habitually preys upon others
having just started to make it really big in the music business, he found himself surrounded by a flock of harpies greedy for a piece of the action
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of harpies
Think a front desk hewn from Dionysos marble and sconces in the shape of harpies.
—
Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 11 Aug. 2025
Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 11 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harpies
Noun
-
In animal studies, TDN helped obese mice and musk shrews lose weight and become more responsive to insulin.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Sunflower sea stars—large predators that feed on sea urchins—were particularly vulnerable, losing nearly 90 percent of their pre-pandemic population in northern waters.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
17 Oct. 2025
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Who knows what kind of predators might hunt them in a forest like this?—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
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But when the sun sets and opening night kicks off, vampires show up and cause havoc.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
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In the late 21st century, the spaceship Theseus and its crew of transhumans, vampires, and an artificial intelligence head to the Oort Cloud to make first contact with an alien ship named Rorschach.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
14 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The bones belonged to hooved animals — a major part of vultures' diets.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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This configuration produces tilted stroke planes, much like those seen in geese, vultures, and kingfishers during slow flight.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Harpies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpies. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
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