WORD GENIUS Word of the Day: Ogdoad

Ogdoad


[OG-doh-ad]

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Greek, early 17th century

1.

A group or set of eight.
Examples of Ogdoad in a sentence

"It’s a good idea to visit an amusement park as an ogdoad, because everyone will have someone to sit with on the rides."

"An octopus has an ogdoad of legs."

About Ogdoad

While this archaic word for a group of eight lacks the “oct-” root we’ve come to expect from similar “eight” words (octopus, octagon), it comes from the same place: the Greek root “oktō,” meaning “eight.”

Did you Know?

While “ogdoad” can technically mean any group of eight, it has a divine connotation. It traditionally referred to groups of gods, and Egyptian deities specifically — the most famous being the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. This ogdoad consisted of four pairs of male and female deities with abstract names including Darkness, Absence, and Endlessness.