Noun: hydra
| Singular | hydra |
| Plural | hydras; hydrae; hydræ |
Sample Sentences
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Because the statute is so vaguely worded, award decisions are habitually based on case law, the growing mountain of which is a hydra of rulings that point in so many directions that almost any decision can be defended or overturned on appeal, depending on how smart your lawyer is and which precedent he selects to argue your case. [2009, Kris Frieswick, Till Death Do Us Pay:]
Nouns inflected like hydra
saliva,
sclera,
subpoena,
persona,
panacea,
amoebula,
cannula,
corolla,
hydrotheca,
scrofula,
fovea,
flora,
hydra,
testa,
vulva,
amebula,
ballista,
hyperbola,
infant formula,
endotesta, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
After the Hydra, from Greek mythology, which grew two new heads every time one of its heads was cut off. The biology sense alludes to the budding method of asexual reproduction that the hydra practices, similar to growing new heads. The figurative sense refers to how the creature could not be killed by a swift, decisive solution (in contrast to a Gordian knot).