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lorelei

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lorelei¹

  • /ˈlɔːɹəlaɪ/

Where it comes from

From the Lorelei rock on the Rhine, which was haunted by one of these creatures according to German legend.

noun loreleis

  1. A siren; a temptress. We grew silly, tongue-tied, said foolish things we did not mean to say, shoved one another about in the boat, and finally overturned it. The loreleis laughed musical little laughs.

Lorelei²

Where it comes from

Borrowed from German Lorelei (“murmuring rock or lurking rock”), but not used as a given name in Germany. The Lorelei (or Lorelei, Loreleï, Lore Lay, Lore-Ley, Lurley, Lurelei, Lurlei) is an infamous maritime disaster site because of the Rhine's current and the surrounding terrain. The shipwrecks have been subject to mythological explanation attempts since around 900 AD.

proper noun

  1. A female given name from German.

Translations

Every language

noun siren, temptress

DeutschLoreley

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Cite this
MLA

"lorelei." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lorelei. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

lorelei. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lorelei

Chicago

"lorelei." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lorelei.

BibTeX
@misc{lorelei_2026,
  title = {lorelei},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lorelei},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}