How to pronounce sphinx

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What sphinx means

noun

Most people know sphinx in its everyday sense. Here's its other meaning.

A big moth that hovers at flowers like a hummingbird

In a sentence: At dusk a sphinx hovered over the honeysuckle, sipping with its long tongue.

Where it comes from: It is the same word as the Sphinx of old stories, which came to English from Greek. The Greek name is perhaps from a word meaning to squeeze.

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