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   sphinx

   /sfɪŋks/

   noun

   • 1. a winged monster having a woman's head and a lion's body. It propounded a riddle about the three ages of man, killing those who failed to solve it, until Oedipus was successful, whereupon the Sphinx committed suicide.
   • ▪ an ancient Egyptian stone figure having a lion's body and a human or animal head, especially the huge statue near the Pyramids at Giza.
   • ▪ an enigmatic or inscrutable person: "it drove him mad when she turned herself into a sphinx as a ruse to avoid facing the truth"
   • 2. another term for hawkmoth North American

   Word Origin late Middle English: via Latin from Greek Sphinx, apparently from sphingein ‘draw tight’.

   Scrabble Points: 18

   • S

     1

   • P

     3

   • H

     4

   • I

     1

   • N

     1

   • X

     8

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