Janus
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Janus
- /ˈd͡ʒeɪnəs/ US, UK
- /ˈdʒæɪ̯nəs/ Australia
Rhymes with -eɪnəs
Where it comes from
From Latin Iānus (“the Roman god Janus”).
proper noun
- The god of doorways, gates and transitions, and of beginnings and endings, having two faces looking in opposite directions. In the ages of victory, as often as the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus. Domestic war now rendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new religion
- Used to indicate things with two faces (such as animals with diprosopus) or aspects; or made of two different materials; or having a two-way action. Janus cat, Janus particle
- Used to indicate an azo dye with a quaternary ammonium group, frequently with the diazo component being safranine. Janus green B is a dye used widely in histology to stain cells for microscopic examination.
- A two-faced person, a hypocrite. The hypocrite; or, The modern Janus.
- A moon of Saturn. Heavily cratered and irregularly shaped, Janus orbits Saturn just beyond the F ring and only 50km (30 miles) farther away than its co-orbital moon, Epimetheus.
- A male given name from Latin.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: jan, faced, jano, janos, janusz, llanos, ianus, juturna, diuturna, jove, jupiter, jaya, vejovis, japetus, urius, door god
Translations
Talk about this word "Janus." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/janus. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. Janus. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/janus "Janus." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/janus.Cite this
@misc{janus_2026,
title = {Janus},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/janus},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}