lamia.

A female monster in classical and later folklore, often depicted as preying on children or as a woman with serpentine features.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a tale of a lamia
• the lamia's disguise
• a serpentine lamia

On the page

The mosaic showed a lamia whose smiling face seemed separate from the coils beneath it.

In the story, the lamia borrowed a woman's voice to ask entrance at the nursery door.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Singular lamia; plural lamias or lamiae. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.