PYTHON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Python mean? 

• PYTHON (noun)
  The noun PYTHON has 3 senses:

1. large Old World boas

2. a soothsaying spirit or a person who is possessed by such a spirit

3. (Greek mythology) dragon killed by Apollo at Delphi

  Familiarity information: PYTHON used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PYTHON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Large Old World boas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("python" is a kind of...):

boa (any of several chiefly tropical constrictors with vestigial hind limbs)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "python"):

carpet snake; Morelia spilotes variegatus; Python variegatus (Australian python with a variegated pattern on its back)

Python reticulatus; reticulated python (of southeast Asia and East Indies; the largest snake in the world)

Indian python; Python molurus (very large python of southeast Asia)

Python sebae; rock python; rock snake (very large python of tropical and southern Africa)

amethystine python (a python having the color of amethyst)

Holonyms ("python" is a member of...):

Pythoninae; subfamily Pythoninae (Old World boas: pythons; in some classifications considered a separate family from Boidae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A soothsaying spirit or a person who is possessed by such a spirit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("python" is a kind of...):

disembodied spirit; spirit (any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(Greek mythology) dragon killed by Apollo at Delphi

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

mythical creature; mythical monster (a monster renowned in folklore and myth)

Domain category:

Greek mythology (the mythology of the ancient Greeks)

 Context examples 

Even the appearance of a very ordinary rock python does not appear to justify such a liberty.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The team was surprised to discover higher-than-expected concentrations of colubroid snakes, suggesting the local environment was more open and seasonally dry, thus more hospitable to these types of active hunting snakes that don't require cover to ambush prey like boas and pythons do.

(Researchers find oldest fossil evidence of modern African venomous snakes, NSF)